Project Blue Book file: Trinidade Island, 16 Jan 1958

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
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