Start date January 16, 1958 | ||
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The Trindade Island's U.F.O. refers to a unidentified flying object which was seen and photographed over the Trindade Island on January 16, 1958. The photographs were rumored as being a hoax. In August 2010, a major T.V. show in Brazil aired information stating that the original photographer had made "hoax" photographs in the past.
Contents
The story
At 12:00 p.m. on January 16, 1958, Brazilian ship Almirante Saldanha, taking part in projects of the International Geophysical Year, was preparing to sail away from Ilha de Trindade, off the coast of the state of Espírito Santo.
Among the crew of the ship, there was a member of the Brazilian Air Force, Captain José Teobaldo Viegas, the submarine photographer Almiro Baraúna, several scientists and a group of highly trained explorers.
Reportedly Captain Viegas was on the deck with several scientists and members of the crew when he suddenly noticed a flying object, which had a "ring" around it, just like Saturn. Witnesses present reportedly saw the U.F.O. at the same time.
It reportedly came toward the island from the east, flew towards the "Pico Desejado" (Wished Peak), made a steep turn and went away very quickly to the north-west.
As soon as the object was noticed, Almiro Baraúna was sought for photography. After getting the camera and going up the quarter-deck, he managed to take several pictures of the object.
After being disclosed, the pictures were exhaustively analyzed by the Laboratório de Reconhecimento Aéreo da Marinha (Brazilian Navy's Aerial Reconnaissance Laboratory) and by the Serviço Aerofotogramétrico Cruzeiro do Sul. All the pictures were considered genuine, taken from a real occurrence, with the certification of military personnel. The pictures even received confirmation from Juscelino Kubitschek, president of Brazil at that time.
To this day because of the certification of the witnesses and the official recognition, the object in Almiro Baraúna's pictures remains unexplained.
In 2010, a document containing a testimonial by Baraúna was unveiled:
Controversy
Other investigators of the case have questioned the authenticity of the photos. Project Blue Book (the controversial U.S. Air Force investigation into the U.F.O. phenomenon) concluded that the photographs were hoaxed. The credibility of Barauna himself has been questioned. He had produced hoaxed photographs in the past (not only of U.F.O.s) and in the past had written an article showing how a well-known U.F.O. photograph taken some years earlier could have been hoaxed. Also, Barauna had the negatives for two days before the Brazilian Navy took them from him for their investigation, and he had cut them away from the remainder of the film negatives. Also, the Brazilian Navy did not get statements from the witnesses immediately after the event. Therefore, the actual number of witnesses is not known with certainty.