Trindade Island, Brazil
20°31′S, 29°19′W — South Atlantic — Brazilian island ~1,200 km east of Vitória; Brazilian Navy station
What's documented
Trindade Island is a small Brazilian volcanic island in the South Atlantic. It hosts a Brazilian Navy oceanographic station and is otherwise uninhabited. On 16 January 1958, four photographs of an apparent disc-shaped object were taken from the deck of the Brazilian Navy training vessel Almirante Saldanha by photographer Almiro Baraúna, in the presence of 48 witnesses. The photographs were officially endorsed by the Brazilian Navy and President Juscelino Kubitschek in February 1958. The case is among very few UFO photo cases officially acknowledged by a sitting national government.
Notable & intriguing
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On 21 February 1958, President Juscelino Kubitschek of Brazil personally cleared the official Navy release of the Trindade photographs to the press, against the recommendations of his Naval Staff. The photographs were taken from the deck of the Almirante Saldanha during an International Geophysical Year oceanographic cruise, with 48 witnesses present including Capt. Carlos Bacellar and the ship's commander.
Brazilian Navy ministerial release, 21 February 1958; 'O Cruzeiro,' 5 March 1958
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Photographer Almiro Baraúna provided the original negatives to the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Service, whose photo-analytic department concluded in February 1958 the images had not been tampered with. In 2010, researcher Kentaro Mori published a forensic analysis arguing for a possible hoax based on light-direction inconsistencies; the Brazilian Navy's original endorsement has never been formally withdrawn.
Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Service report, February 1958; Mori, 'Trindade UFO Photographs Forensic Analysis' (2010)
Public-record imagery
