Trindade Island photos

From TinWiki.org

Almiro Barauna claimed to have taken four photos of a UFO on 16 January 1958 near Trindade Island, Brazil (east of Rio de Janeiro) while on board the ship Almirante Saldanha, which was conducting research for the International Geophysical Year.

Contents 1 The Trindade Island Photos 1.1 First Photo 1.2 Second Photo 2 Claims to fame 3 The Skeptics 3.1 United States Air Force 3.2 Menzel and Boyd 4 References to discussions in books 5 External links 6 Relevant Discussion Threads on ATS

The Trindade Island Photos

Almiro Barauna, a professional civilian photographer, claimed to have taken six photos while watching a UFO from the deck of the Almirante Saldanha, a Brazilian Navy ship, in the vicinity of Trindade Island (a Brazilian possession off the coast of South America, east of Rio de Janeiro) on 16 January 1958.

Barauna claimed to have shot six frames, of which two failed to show the object. He explained that due to the excitement he was bumped during these two and that they showed only the deck of the ship and the ocean.

The photographs were released to the press by the President of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek.

Various prominent UFO researchers have made statements about the significance of this case. For example, in his written statement to the so-called “Roush Hearing” (i.e. the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" on 29 July 1968) Frank Salisbury claimed “this is an excellent sighting because of the number of witnesses involved and the excellent quality of the pictures”. He also suggested that “Conventional objects can hardly explain the sighting”.

First Photo

First Trindade Island Photo

Second Photo

Second Trindade Island Photo

Claims to fame

The Trindade Island photographs have been referred to as “the most famous of all purported photographs of a UFO” (by Donald Menzel and Lyle Boyd in their book “The World of Flying Saucers”, 1963).

During 2003-2007, Isaac Koi reviewed a sample of 963 UFO and SETI books and noted the frequency with which various UFO cases were discussed. The Trindade Island incident featured in a list of the top 10 photographic cases (in terms of frequency of discussion). This incident was the third most frequently discussed UFO photograph case in the study, with 72 discussions being noted.

This incident came third in a survey in 1965 by Jacques Vallee of the opinion of various UFO groups as to the best UFO cases.

This incident has been included within various lists of the best UFO cases produced by various researchers. For example:

• a list by APRO of the 5 best cases.
• a list by Bruce Maccabee of 20 cases which give “the best evidence for an extraterrestrial origin for the UFO phenomenon”.
• a list by Ronald Story of the 4 best photographic cases.

The Trindade Island photographs were the only photos to get their own chapter in a document (“the Rockefeller Briefing Document)” endorsed by Dr Mark Rodeghier (President of CUFOS), Richard Hall (Chairman of FUFOR) and Walter Andrus (President of MUFON) as containing “the best available evidence for the existence of UFOs”.

The Skeptics

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force included these photographs in Project Blue Book as Case Number 5634. Its evaluation of them was: “Other (HOAX)”.

Menzel and Boyd

In their book “The World of Flying Saucers” (1963), Donald Menzel and Lyle Boyd discussed the Trindade photographs at some length (in an 11 page discussion). They consider that the evidence strongly suggest that this case “was merely an unusually skillful hoax”. They relied upon various points, including the following:

• The photographer, Almiro Barauna, was reported in the media as stating that he was “an able photographer, specialized in trick photography”.
• When the ship docked on 24 February 1958, officers and crewman were interviewed by newsmen. “None of them, it turned out, had actually seen the object”.
• Almiro Barauna had long been interested in flying saucers and had published an article about them, illustrated with admittedly faked photographs.
• The photos have “several dubious features”.

Menzel and Boyd suggest that only two persons other than the photographer “are on record as actual eyewitnesses” and “both of them were personal friends of the photographer”.

Other sources state various numbers of witnesses, ranging from 48 to 100 sailors.

References to discussions in books

• Steuart Campbell, in his “The UFO Mystery Solved” (1994) at pages 109-117 (Chapter 6 generally) of the Explicit Books softcover edition. [9 page discussion]
• Jerome Clark in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition : Volume 2:L-Z” (1998) at pages 898-903 (in an entry entitled “Trindade Island Photographs”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. [6 page discussion]
• J Allen Hynek, in his “The Hynek UFO Report” (1977) at pages 236-241 (in Chapter 10) of the Barnes & Noble hardback reprint (1997) at pages 246-251 of the Dell paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the Sphere paperback edition). [6 page discussion]
• Coral Lorenzen in “Flying Saucers: the Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space” (1966) (an enlarged version of her “The Great Flying Saucer Hoax” (1962)) at pages 164-174 (Chapter 11 generally), 228-229 (in Chapter 14), also mentioned at page 146 (in Chapter 10) of the Signet paperback edition. [14 page discussion]
• Donald Menzel and Lyle Boyd in their “The World of Flying Saucers” (1963) at pages 206-216 (in Chapter 10) of the Doubleday hardback edition. [11 page discussion]
• Kevin D Randle, in his “Scientific Ufology” (1999) at pages 106-114, 126 (in Chapter 4) of the Avon softcover edition. [10 page discussion]

For further references, see the entry dated 1958.0116 in Isaac Koi’s Core Chronology (“KCC”).

External links

• First Trindade Island photograph available in various sizes
  

• Second Trindade Island available in various sizes
  

• Relevant page of Project Blue Book’s index of files
  

• Links to various relevant documents and articles on the NICAP website
  

• Links to various relevant documents and articles on the Ufologie website of Patrick Gross
  

• Links to various relevant documents and articles on the UFO Evidence website
  

• Relevant extract of Frank Salibury’s written statement to the “Roush Hearing”
  

Relevant Discussion Threads on ATS

• 50 people see U.F.O over Trindade Island.
  
• A request for you jritzmann.