Two weeks ago, a video was published on YouTube in which an enthusiast of the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) theme presents a list of “eight very strange cases” of people who supposedly had direct contact with and boarded these objects. One of the cases reported in detail is located on the island of Madeira, between 1977 and 1979. Was this testimony actually recorded?
From the outset, the purpose of this Fact Check is to verify whether there is indeed a report from a resident of Madeira claiming to have been contacted by extraterrestrial beings traveling in a UFO. It is not intended, in any way, to assess whether such testimony is reliable or not, as we do not have sufficient evidence to make such an evaluation.
The video that serves as the starting point for this Fact Check was published on YouTube on October 18th by Preston Dennett , an American citizen who presents himself as a researcher and author specializing in UFOs and paranormal phenomena. He began following these topics in 1986, when he noticed that family, friends, and colleagues were experiencing “dramatic, unexplained experiences.” He is affiliated with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a group of volunteers who record UFO sightings worldwide. He has published more than two dozen books on the subject. He has also collaborated on the production of four television documentaries . He openly believes in the existence of intelligent beings from outside Earth, who possess more advanced technology and visit our planet. He bases this conviction not on scientific evidence or information from official entities, but primarily on testimonies from people who claim to have been contacted by extraterrestrial beings.
Now, on his personal YouTube channel, Preston Dennett has shared a video where, for an hour, he describes what he considers “eight very strange encounters aboard a UFO.” The author identifies as “one of the most interesting cases” the one that occurred in the late 1970s on the island of Madeira. At a certain point in the documentary, the source of the information is mentioned: an article published in DIÁRIO on February 18, 1979.
“Young Madeiran protagonist of a close encounter of the 3rd kind” is the title of this report, written by journalists Catanho Fernandes and Maurício Fernandes. The protagonist’s name, who was 19 years old at the time, is not identified. In the news story, the young man describes how he was contacted several times by extraterrestrial beings, who even took him to another planet. According to his words, the first contact occurred in the early morning of December 1977, as follows: “I started hearing a fantastic sound. A light opened up in my room. I looked up and saw a large and fantastic ‘flying saucer’. Then, a voice spoke. It was an extraterrestrial being, who spoke in a somewhat incomprehensible Brazilian and who said, among other things: ‘Do not fear death, because God created terrestrial and extraterrestrial beings with spirit. He is, truly, the creator’.” The light faded within a few minutes.
The young man said he had several other subsequent encounters. In the early morning of August 1978, while passing by Pináculo, he again sighted “a large flying saucer” and it seemed to him that its occupants were seeking contact. According to his account, the contact finally occurred on January 8, 1979, when he was taken inside the flying saucer, from where he saw planet Earth. The interior was “white and full of buttons and had windows that looked like televisions.” He was greeted by four “UFO nauts,” “very handsome,” dressed in tight-fitting clothes. They asked him questions in English. He placed the last contact on February 8, 1979. On that occasion, he was transported to another planet, where he encountered an “ultramodern civilization.” He stated that during this trip he underwent a medical examination. The same person explained to journalists that he had not recounted his experience before because he feared being considered “demented or lunatic.”
In the video published by Preston Dennett, the Madeiran citizen is identified as ‘Gustavo’. But this is a pseudonym. The American investigator states that this case came to his attention through the Portuguese university professor Pedro Barbosa, also a scholar of these phenomena, who claims to have personally interviewed the witness. He found him to be a person “very confident about the reality of his experiences and honest”.
We found no further news reports about ‘Gustavo’s’ story, who, if he is alive, would be 65 years old today. As we have already mentioned, it is only a personal account and we have no information to verify its veracity. But it is an account that was recorded in the news. Coincidentally, it happened at the same time that the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” by Steven Spielberg, which deals with the same theme, was showing in cinemas.
