Section B · FACh General · director of CEFAA
Ricardo Bermúdez
General (ret.) of the Chilean Air Force · former combat pilot · director of CEFAA (2009–2016)
Biography
Retired general of the Chilean Air Force and former combat pilot, with a career that included directing the Technical Aeronautics School and the Engineering School, deputy-directing the FACh Academy, serving as air attaché in London and commanding the Third Air Brigade. Between 2009 and 2016 he directed CEFAA (Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena) of Chilean civil aviation, giving it its greatest scientific and international profile. Under his leadership CEFAA investigated and publicly acknowledged as unidentified the El Bosque air base case (2010) and the naval helicopter case (2014). He is the institutional face of official Chilean ufology.
Why they're here · 2 pieces
- 2009
Dirección de la CEFAA (2009–2016)
Gave the official Chilean committee a scientific, multidisciplinary profile
- 2014
Caso del helicóptero naval
Led the multidisciplinary analysis of the case, publicly acknowledged as unidentified
Sources
Associated cases (4)
CEFAA · Chilean DGAC/Air Force committee· 1997
After two nights of sightings at Chacalluta airport (Arica) in March 1997, the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC) created CEFAA (Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena) that year, under Chilean civil aviation. It brings together a multidisciplinary panel (astronomers, physicists, psychologists, aeronautical experts) to analyze FANI reports with a scientific method. Under the direction of General (ret.) Ricardo Bermúdez (2009–2016) it investigated and publicly acknowledged cases such as El Bosque (2010) and the naval helicopter (2014). It completes the quartet of Latin American official commissions alongside CRIDOVNI, OIFAA and CIAE.
El Bosque, Chile (CEFAA)· 2010
During a FACh air parade at El Bosque (Santiago), nobody noticed anything live; on later reviewing the footage, an engineer spotted an object crossing at high speed between the squadrons. CEFAA gathered seven independent videos, commissioned a photogrammetric analysis that estimated very high speeds, and classified the case as anomalous. Later analyses proposed an insect near the lens.
Chilean Navy helicopter· 2014
A Chilean Navy Cougar helicopter filmed nine minutes of infrared video of an object visible only in thermal imaging off Valparaíso; CEFAA ran a two-year multi-agency investigation and officially published the footage and report in 2017.
Collahuasi (CEFAA)· 2013
In April 2013, technicians at the Doña Inés de Collahuasi mine —over 4,300 m in the Atacama altiplano— photographed a disc-shaped object that lingered nearby for about an hour before moving off. CEFAA, the official committee of Chile's DGAC under General (ret.) Ricardo Bermúdez, investigated the images with optical and thermal analysis and one analyst rated them an object or phenomenon of great interest, unidentified. Bermúdez himself urged caution: it was a single analyst's conclusion and the witnesses did not cooperate.
Synthesized bio from the UAP disclosure ecosystem — categorized by epistemological section (A-F).