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This Project Blue Book file from the USAF, released via The Black Vault, covers the 16 January 1958 sighting at Trindade Island. Its record card says two Rio de Janeiro newspapers printed photos of an alleged flying saucer taken from a Brazilian naval ship, and that ONI analysis judged them a hoax. The file also holds galley proofs from a Menzel book arguing the Barauna photographs were faked, plus APRO Bulletin and NICAP material.
ROB MERCERFINAL GALLEY PROOF Galley 79- THE WORLD OF FLYING SAUCERS ficers and crewmen who examined it allegedly agreed that it showed the same Saturn-like UFO that had flown over the island. After the return to Rio he made prints and enlargements and turned them over, together with the negative, to the Brazilian Navy. The question of authenticity arOse immediatel y. Called down to Intelligence headquarte rs for an interview, Barauna underwent a four·hour inte rrogation concerning the pictures [ 19]. During the questioning he was asked, "If you were going to make a £lying saucer appear on a negative, how would you proceed?" He replied, as he later told a reporter, "Comondallte, I am an able photographer, specialized in trick photography, but I could not produce one that would withstand close and accurate examination ." [20] In spite of this modest disclaimer, some of the photographic evi- dence clearly suggested fraud , and a strong difference of opinion developed among government officials. Some accepted the pictures as a genuine record of a flying saucer; others pronounced them fakes. For several weeks the incident was kept secret, but when eventually someone took the prints to the President of Brazil, further concealment became impossible. Yielding to the persuasion of cer- tain military advisers and newsmen, and against the advice of the Naval Ministry, he released the pictures to the press. The Brazilian Naval "A1inistry The photographs were published on February 21, five weeks after they were taken. Since the President had apparently accepted them at face value, the Naval Ministry was obviously in a difficult posi- tion; through an unofficial spokesman it issued a statement notable ---- ----- ------ - -- .-.------- l'
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