Bob Pratt

Career

Robert Vance Pratt was an American journalist and UFO researcher who spent four decades investigating unidentified flying objects and interviewing witnesses across six continents. Born in 1926, he began his journalism career in 1951, working as a reporter and editor for newspapers across the eastern United States before joining the National Enquirer in 1973.

Pratt remained a skeptic about UFOs until May 1975, when, while covering UFO stories for the Enquirer, he interviewed more than 60 witnesses to UFO encounters in a single week. This experience transformed him into a believer in the reality of the phenomenon. For the next six years as a UFO reporter, he traveled extensively—to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Puerto Rico, Peru, Uruguay, the Philippines, and Japan—conducting detailed investigations and accumulating interviews with over 2,000 UFO witnesses. He also served as editor of the MUFON UFO Journal from 1983 to 1984.

Brazil Focus

Pratt's most significant contribution was his deep investigation of the Brazilian UFO phenomenon. After leaving the National Enquirer in 1981, he made 14 additional trips to Brazil (beyond four during his Enquirer years), conducting fieldwork that eclipsed his earlier efforts. During these investigations, he examined over 200 documented UFO cases and interviewed approximately 1,700 Brazilian witnesses. His research revealed that UFO encounters in Brazil were often more aggressive and physically harmful than those reported elsewhere in the world—featuring injuries, missing time, and alleged abductions.

His comprehensive work culminated in UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil—Where Next?, published in 1996, which documented abduction cases with testimony and photographic evidence from victims. An updated Portuguese-language edition was released in Brazil in 2003. In recognition of his decades of dedicated research, Pratt was formally honored by the Brazilian UFO research community and awarded a diploma as "Ufólogo Brasileiro Honorário" (Honorary Brazilian Ufologist) on May 3, 2003.

Legacy

Pratt retired in April 1999 after 48 years in journalism, having become one of the few Western researchers to make the Brazilian UFO phenomenon a systematic focus of study. He maintained an active research schedule until his death on November 21, 2005, at age 79. His extensive interview archive and case documentation remain important historical records for UFO researchers and journalists documenting the phenomenon.