A photographer aboard a Brazilian Navy ship photographs a disc near Trindade Island
January 16, 1958 · Trindade Island, South Atlantic · Sighting · Secondary sources only
Around midday on 16 January 1958, civilian photographer Almiro Barauna took a series of photos of a disc-shaped object from the deck of the Navy training ship Almirante Saldanha, then on an International Geophysical Year mission. Dozens of people aboard were said to have seen it. President Juscelino Kubitschek released the photos in February 1958, and a Navy report said experts found no sign of a montage and that the evidence 'indicates' a real object.
Why it matters (4/5)
Photographs that the Brazilian Navy vouched for and the President released, while US agencies called them a hoax.
Caveats
The US Naval Attache, the Office of Naval Intelligence and Project Blue Book labeled the photos a hoax, citing Barauna's past trick photography, though Blue Book admitted it never obtained copies. J. Allen Hynek criticized that dismissal. The witness count comes from a private case file, and the Navy report itself was not opened.
Video and images
- Baraúna photograph of the object over Trindade Island, 1958 (Photo, Wikimedia Commons)
Sources
- Trindade 1958 (Patrick Gross, UFOs at close sight), context
- Project BLUE BOOK – Unidentified Flying Objects (U.S. National Archives (NARA)), context