The Trindade Island Photographs

In January 1958 the Brazilian Navy ship Almirante Saldanha was anchored off Ilha da Trindade, about 750 miles from the mainland. It was doing hydrographic work for the International Geophysical Year. Almiro Baraúna, 42, a professional underwater photographer from Bahia, was aboard at the Navy's invitation. So were members of a diving club, among them Amilar Vieira Filho and Capt. José Teobaldo Viegas, a reserve Air Force pilot.

Thursday, 16 January 1958. About 12:15. The ship was about to sail back to Rio de Janeiro. Baraúna said Viegas was the one who drew his eyes to the sky.

"It was coming over the sea, moving toward the point called the Galo Crest." Baraúna described "a metallic look, of an ash color," with "a condensation of a green vapor around the perimeter." It left a white trail that slowly faded. He took two photographs. Then it "disappeared behind the peak Desejado."

It came back. It looked bigger now, and it flew lower, closer and faster, in the opposite direction. "It showed an undulatory movement as it flew across the sky, like the flight of a bat." It seemed to stop in midair, undulating slightly, like a balloon. Then it headed back out to sea and was gone. Years later he wrote: "The object did not emit any noise."

Six frames in about 14 seconds. Four show the object. The other two show only sea and rocky coast, because someone jostled him. Baraúna said almost everyone on deck saw it. NICAP later reported that the ship's electrical power failed while the object was there.

The film was developed on board in an improvised darkroom. At first only an indistinct point could be seen on the negatives. The Navy's photo laboratory found "no sign of montage," but said it could not prove whether one had been made earlier. On 21 February 1958 the photos appeared in Correio da Manhã and O Jornal. The Navy Ministry said the photographs "do not constitute sufficient proof." The Navy General Staff report still concluded that "there are indications of the existence of the UFO."

The US Navy attaché, Capt. M. Sunderland, called the photos a hoax. He said Photo 2 was an upside-down copy of Photo 1, and Project Blue Book agreed. The ship's commander had not seen the object. Cmdr. Carlos Alberto Ferreira Bacellar had been inside his cabin. The watch log does not mention the event. Tim Printy and Portal Vigília say only three people came forward, all from the same diving club. In 2011 Edson Jansen Ferreira, who had been on deck, asked: "everybody saw and I alone was blind?"

Baraúna also had a history. In 1953 he wrote an article showing how the Barra da Tijuca saucer photos could be faked. In 1954 he published faked "treasure" photos. In 2010 TV Globo's Fantástico aired his friend Emília Bittencourt's claim that he made the craft from two kitchen spoons. His niece denied confirming any fraud. In 2011 his nephew, Marcelo Ribeiro, gave a different account. He said it was a double exposure of ferry tokens, shot at night in Niterói. The two stories contradict each other.

Donald Menzel first suggested an aircraft flying through fog, and later a model. Martin Powell argued for a Beechcraft Twin Bonanza that "matches nine of the eleven measured features." Supporters at APRO and NICAP pointed to the lab findings, the witnesses and the development on board. NICAP calls the frames "one of the potentially most significant series of UFO photographs on record." Kevin Randle has argued for patience: "let's wait until we have the absolute proof before we label it."