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.
Documents
CEFAA · Chilean DGAC/Air Force committee
The Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA), created in 1997 by Chile's civil aviation authority (DGAC) after two nights of sightings by its staff at Chacalluta airport (Arica). It brings together a multidisciplinary panel of astronomers, physicists, meteorologists, psychologists and aviation experts who check each report against air traffic, ephemerides and weather. Reorganized on December 15, 2009 under the DGAC General Secretariat, it was led by retired General Ricardo Bermúdez until 2016, and in that period publicly acknowledged the El Bosque (2010) and naval helicopter (2014) cases as unidentified. It was later renamed SEFAA. Leaving cases open proves nothing about their nature: the panel dismisses most reports as conventional objects or effects.
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 (3)
El Bosque, Chile (CEFAA)· 2010
During a FACh air parade at El Bosque (Santiago), nobody noticed anything live; on later…
Chilean Navy helicopter· 2014
A Chilean Navy Cougar helicopter filmed nine minutes of infrared video of an object…
Collahuasi (CEFAA)· 2013
In April 2013, workers at the Doña Inés de Collahuasi mine (over 4,300 m up on the…
Biography summarized from public sources, classified by section (A-F).