The Portuguese military fired a ground-to-air missile at the luminous UFO that passed over their country during the early morning hours of Monday, June 7, 2004.

Portuguese ufologist Gregoria Sao Xavier reported that "the cigar-shaped UFO was tracked on radar. It moved in a south-to-north direction. It was reported in the Portuguese newspapers that 'a target on radar' was found at three separate military bases." These included "Beja, south of Evora and north of the Algarve region; Montijo, near Lisboa; and Oporto, the second largest city in Portugal.

The news was released by a colonel in the Portuguese Army. "That same day, only one report came from a civilian identifying the trajectory of the unknown object as coming from north to south, and a cigar form was described. "Some days later, it was reported on Spanish and German TV that an official of the Portuguese Army confirmed that missile had been launched. What most people saw "was trailing smoke from the missile launched at the UFO.

"Visual contact with the object was made at the base in Beja." Gregoria added, "A week later, the photo of a cigar-shaped object appeared in a popular (Portuguese) magazine. And a few days later, the military officials charged with the investigation of the incident closed the case, calling it an 'unknown object.'

One of the most curious aspects of this case was the multiple sightings of a radar-domed AWACS plane, provided by NATO, which was seen flying offshore, just west of Cabo de Sines, 120 kilometers south of Lisboa.

(Muito obrigado a Gregoria Sao Xavier por esas informacoes.)

Earlier News:

Monte Novo - A UFO was photographed on Monday, May 31, 2004, around 2:30 PM, by Eduardo Silva, 25, of the Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade (ISQ) as he performed a water quality survey on the waters of Monte Novo. Two engineers and two students were together but did not notice the presence of the object until they checked the images picked up by the digital camera. The Portuguese Air Force had followed the tracks of a "spindle-shaped" object which had crossed the national air space. On Monday, Colonel Barbosa of the Armed Forces High Command explained that they were currently "cross-checking information from the radar images and eyewitness accounts."

The reflection of the sun on the apparently metallic object agrees with the shadows of the trees shown in the photo.

Source: Ruiz Chaves/Carlos Varela Correio da Manhã

http://www.correiomanha.pt .

Translation © 2004. Scott Corrales,Institute of Hispanic [sic].

Portimão -- On June 1, 2004, the witness saw what appeared to be a comet with a long very bright conical tail at 11:15 PM. Suddenly, it started moving very fast in zigzags to the southwest with a reddish point and it lasted for a few minutes. It was not a comet, it was not a meteorite, it was not space debris, because debris or meteorites don't circle and don't stop in the air. This UFO was seen in various places in Portugal and was on TV and in all the press.

Twenty people saw a big light on the horizon flying from south to north for 500 km over Portugal on June 1, 2004, at 11:00 PM. All the people that saw the phenomenon report that the UFO was traveling with a strong light, and with a strange tail of smoke.

Neither the trajectory nor the speed was agreed [on] by witnesses. The last sightings were around 500 kilometres from the first ones. The sighting was covered by Portuguese television, radio stations, and newspapers.

source:

http://www.fsr.org.uk

Flying Saucer Review, Volume 49/2, Summer 2004, pp. 19 & 20