Case file · Sighting

Trindade Island photographs

Photographer Almiro Baraúna took four pictures of a Saturn-shaped disc over Trindade Island from a Brazilian Navy ship.

1958 CE · -20.51, -29.32 · status: disputed

The account

On 16 January 1958 the training ship Almirante Saldanha, supporting International Geophysical Year work, was anchored off Trindade in the South Atlantic. Baraúna, a civilian invited to take underwater photos, said several people on deck saw a ringed object circle the island's peak, and his developed film showed it. Copies meant for President Juscelino Kubitschek reached the press and the pictures went round the world. A 1967 Dell newsstand magazine, 'Flying Saucers: UFO Reports' No. 1, ran the Barauna photographs under the title '...Like the Flight of a Bat'. A copy of the magazine was kept in CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence files.

The sceptical view

Navy officers said only about eight people claimed to see anything, scientists stationed on the island saw nothing, and the shipboard notes speak only of a 'strange stain' on three frames. In 2010 and 2011 a friend and a nephew of Baraúna said he had told them he faked the images with two spoons in front of his fridge; Project Blue Book also judged them a hoax.

The researched reading

Famous photos taken in front of witnesses, but by a trick photographer who reportedly confessed. A hoax is by far the most likely explanation.

Explanation	Weight	Why
A hoax or fabrication	75%	Baraúna was a trick-photography specialist; in 2010 a family friend and a niece said he had admitted faking the pictures, and analyses suggest double exposure; the ship’s notes mention only a "strange stain".
Something known, misidentified	8%	A bird, balloon or aircraft photographed and later altered has been proposed by Martin Powell.
Genuinely anomalous	7%	Some crew reported seeing an object, and the Brazilian Navy did not declare it a hoax at the time.
Perception, memory or mind	4%	Only a few of the many people on deck claimed to see anything, and excitement spreads on a ship.
A known natural phenomenon	2%	No natural phenomenon fits the ringed shape.
A poorly understood natural phenomenon	2%	Nothing points to an unusual natural effect.
Secret human technology	2%	No secret aircraft fits the shape over the South Atlantic.

Official position: US Naval intelligence and Project Blue Book judged the photos a hoax; the Brazilian Navy did not endorse them, and the President released them to the press.

Connections in the atlas

Sources

Open it in the living atlas