Trinidade, Island, January 1958January 1958

On January 16, 1958, the Brazilian naval ship Almirante Saldanha was anchored off Trindade Island, about 600 miles east of Rio de Janeiro. The ship was part of Brazil's participation in the International Geophysical Year research program. At around noon, a photographer aboard the ship captured photographs of a disc shaped object in the sky. Two leading newspapers in Rio de Janeiro published the images on February 21, bringing the case to public attention.

The photographer was a professional known for trick photography work. He had brought his Rolleiflex camera on board at the Navy's invitation. He reported seeing a dark gray, lens shaped object surrounded by a kind of condensation or phosphorescent vapor. According to his account, the object moved across the sky at an estimated speed between 600 and 1,000 miles per hour, appearing metallic and solid, changing speed abruptly without smooth transition.

The Brazilian Navy initially refused to make an official statement about the incident. Navy officers who were interviewed showed reluctance to discuss the matter. However, after the photographs were published in newspapers, several Navy personnel came forward with statements. Some said they had witnessed the object on deck. Others claimed only about one hundred crew members had seen it. Notably, the ship's commanding officer had not seen the object himself and remained noncommittal about its authenticity.

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) reviewed the photographs and concluded they were unconvincing. The analysis found that while details of the land were extremely sharp, the disc itself appeared hazy with little contrast and showed no shadow effect. The photographs also appeared inconsistent with one another, with the object seeming inverted in one image compared to others. Additionally, the photographer claimed extremely high speeds, yet there was no visible motion blur in the images that would be expected at such velocities.

The Air Force evaluated the photographs as a "trick" and noted that the photographer had a well known history of hoax photographs and trick photography. The file states this sighting is still carried as a TRICK in Air Force files. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 16 pages.