José Lemos Ferreira

General José Lemos Ferreira was a high-ranking officer in the Portuguese Air Force, serving as Chief of Staff. He played a pivotal role in the 1982 Ota Air Base UFO incident by authorizing the unprecedented release of military files to independent UFO investigators, enabling thorough examination of pilot sightings of a fast-maneuvering disk-shaped object. This transparency stemmed from his own personal UFO sighting decades earlier, as a young squadron leader, of a similar craft over the same Ota Air Force Base skies. His actions marked one of Portugal's most notable official acknowledgments of a UFO encounter, involving three veteran pilots who reported the object pacing and outmaneuvering their aircraft at extraordinary speeds.