Incident · 16 January 1958 · Off Trindade Island, South Atlantic (Brazil)
Trindade Island photographs from the Brazilian Navy ship Almirante Saldanha
Also known as Trindade Island UFO, Ilha da Trindade 1958, Almirante Saldanha UFO, Barauna photographs, Baraúna photos, Trindade saucer
Partly explained. Project Blue Book filed the photos as a hoax on the U.S. Naval Attaché's and ONI's analysis without obtaining them, while the Brazilian Navy made no pronouncement on the object; a family friend's account reported in 2010 says the photographer faked them. (Project Blue Book file: Trindade Island, Brazil, 16 January 1958)
On 16 January 1958, as the Brazilian Navy ship Almirante Saldanha prepared to leave Trindade Island, a South Atlantic island some 600 miles from the Brazilian coast where the Navy ran a station for the International Geophysical Year, the civilian photographer Almiro Barauna, a guest of the Navy, took a sequence of photographs of a Saturn-shaped object passing over the island's peaks. Published in Rio on 21 February, they were soon among the most widely reproduced UFO photographs: accounts at the time said many of the crew had seen the object, and the Navy Minister was quoted saying the Navy held a secret it could not explain. The Navy Ministry itself said only that it had no reason to block their release and could not pronounce on the object, as the photographs were not sufficient proof.
The case against them is as strong as the case for them. The U.S. Naval Attaché found that neither the captain nor the executive officer had seen anything, that Barauna developed the film alone, and that he was known for trick photography; he judged a publicity stunt most likely, and Project Blue Book filed the photos as a hoax on that analysis without ever obtaining them. Menzel and Boyd found no Navy eyewitness on record, only two of the photographer's friends. In 2010 a family friend told Brazilian television that Barauna, by then dead, had admitted faking them with two spoons. On the other side, the Brazilian Navy's own report, as quoted by UFO researchers, says commercial photo experts found no sign of montage on the negatives while admitting a montage made beforehand could not be ruled out.
No official body has resolved it: the U.S. hoax verdict rests on a report written without the photographs, the Brazilian Navy never endorsed or rejected them, and the confession is second-hand. The case is marked partly explained.
Sources: Project Blue Book file, Trindade Island, with ONI Information Report 39-58 (U.S. Naval Attaché, Rio, 11 March 1958) · Menzel & Boyd, The World of Flying Saucers (1963), ch. X · Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report (1977) · UFO Briefing Document (1995), quoting the Brazilian Navy report · G1/Fantástico, 15 August 2010
Facts and claims
- documented On 21 February 1958 two leading Rio de Janeiro newspapers printed photographs of an alleged flying saucer taken from the Brazilian naval ship Almirante Saldanha at about midday on 16 January 1958, while it was anchored off Trindade Island, some 600 miles east of Rio, on International Geophysical Year research, by the freelance photographer Almiro Barauna (ONI Information Report 39-58, p. 48). Source: doc-blue-book-trindade-1958.pdf
- documented The Navy Ministry's official statement said it had “no motive to impede the release of” Barauna's photographs, taken in the presence of many of the crew, but could make no pronouncement on the object because the photographs “do not constitute sufficient proof for such purpose” (quoted in ONI report 39-58, p. 49). Source: doc-blue-book-trindade-1958.pdf
- documented When the ship docked at Santos on 24 February, the U.S. Assistant Naval Attaché found that the commanding officer and the executive officer had not seen the object, and learned that an officer escorted the photographer to the darkroom and waited outside “while Barauna developed the negatives alone” (p. 49). Source: doc-blue-book-trindade-1958.pdf
- documented The attaché's report judged a “fake publicity stunt” by the photographer the most likely explanation, noting that Barauna was known for trick photography (including a humorous magazine article illustrated with faked saucer pictures) and that the photos showed sharp land but a hazy disc without shadow, an apparently inverted object in photo 2 and no lateral blurring (pp. 48, 51). Source: doc-blue-book-trindade-1958.pdf
- documented Project Blue Book's record card concludes hoax, while noting that the Center had been unable to obtain copies of the photos and relied on ONI's analysis; in 1960 the Air Force told a protester that “No witnesses were present while the photographer developed the” negatives (pp. 2, 35). Source: doc-blue-book-trindade-1958.pdf
- claimed The Brazilian Navy's report on the Trindade sightings, as quoted in English in a 1995 compilation, records that photo technicians of the Cruzeiro do Sul aerophotogrammetric service found “no sign of montage” on the negatives but that “it would be impossible to prove either the existence or nonexistence of prior montage”, so that the photographer's testimony “loses its definitely convincing character”; it concluded only that there were indications that the object existed. Source: UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence
- claimed The same compilation quotes the Navy Minister, Admiral Alves Câmara, telling United Press after meeting President Kubitschek that “the Navy has a great secret which it cannot divulge because it cannot be explained”. Source: UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence
- claimed Donald Menzel and Lyle Boyd (1963) found that no officer or crewman of the Brazilian Navy reported seeing the object, that the only other eyewitnesses on record were two of the photographer's friends, one of whom held the flashlight in the darkroom, and that he had days unsupervised with camera and negatives; they called the photographs “almost certainly a hoax”. — Donald H. Menzel Source: menzel-world-of-flying-saucers.html
- claimed J. Allen Hynek, Blue Book's scientific consultant, objected to the tone of the attaché's report (its closing quip about “comfort-loving” Martians and its ridicule of the Brazilian government): “Such bias and flippancy have no place in scientific” investigations. — J. Allen Hynek Source: cufos.org (archived)
- claimed In August 2010 G1/Fantástico reported that Emília Bittencourt, a friend of Barauna's family, said the photographer (who had died) told her he faked the images, using two spoons as the craft and his refrigerator door as backdrop (“Ele pegou duas colheres, juntou, e improvisou uma nave espacial”), and that a niece who holds his archive confirmed the fraud but declined to be recorded. Source: g1.globo.com (archived)
Connected files
Documents
- Project Blue Book file: Trindade Island, Brazil, 16 January 1958 (documented in)
- UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence (discussed by)
Organizations
- Office of Naval Intelligence (analysed by) — The U.S. Naval Attaché's ONI Information Report 39-58 judged a “fake publicity stunt” most likely
Books
- The World of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age (discussed by) — Menzel and Boyd called the photographs “almost certainly a hoax”
- The Hynek UFO Report (discussed by)
People
- Donald H. Menzel (statements by)
- J. Allen Hynek (statements by)
Mentioned in this file
- Project Blue Book (Program)
- Confession: Our Hidden Alien Encounters Revealed (Book)