Trindade Island Case reduced to ashes?
The classic Trindade Island Case occurred when modern Ufology was barely born, for only 11 years had passed since Kenneth Arnold’s flight at Mount Rainier. Over the succeeding decades Ufology grew up and the review of this case will help it to refine its maturity and understanding of the phenomenon – a phenomenon which sometimes illudes us by presenting itself as a teasing puzzle. Other times it may look threatening and insolent.
The possible revelation of Barauna’s 53-year old secret [in case it is confirmed after a joint interview] must be seen by Ufology as a big lesson, especially when it comes to deal with images and witnesses’ statements. Now more than ever it is a must that all previous classics which were not yet reviewed be subject to a thorough analysis in order to produce what really matters: the truth whatever it might be no matter whom it might please.
The possibility that the worldly known pictures by Almiro Barauna could be just a manipulation would be a huge blow to Ufology. Ufologists must be more and more merciless and severe in their future researches. This is what Trindade Island Case teaches us as a legacy for the future.
However, the investigation exclusively published by Revista UFO and Brazilian Ufology Portal to the World Ufology Community will be from now on assessed, compared and refined by its main scholars in order to confirm or dismiss the UFO sightings in the skies of that place.
The UFO appearance was never under question. But could that all be a unique coincidence or an event of mass hysteria? As we csn see in the interview Marcelo Ribeiro is a skeptik and has his own view about UFOs, a view which differs from Ufologists’ opinion. Did a UFO appear in the island skies and Barauna was so unlucky to have no films in his camera to take a photograph? Or was it just an ordinary phenomenon in the sky turned into a big joke by the crew which led to a mass hysteria? This latest hypothesis is not one to dismiss. Future investigations will certainly uncover the truth about it as well.
Barauna’s pictures made history as the best mockery ever prepared in UFO pictures. It confirms the old truth that UFO pictures and films were never and will never be the ultimate proof for flying saucer\’s existence. Had it not bee for these alleged confessions that everything was nothing but an excellent manipulation, those pictures would still be regarded as authentic for many more years.
It is also true that they would continue being put in question by many, but the suspicion would not be enough to dismiss them as fake. Wherever he might be, Barauna must still be laughing a lot about it.
Summary of facts
In order to clearly condensate the impact of the revelation of Barauna’s secret – according to his nephew’s, Marcelo Ribeiro, version – here goes a summary on its developments: Barauna was making underwater photographs at Trindade Island. When he came up to the ship he saw people pointing and looking at the sky. They said a UFO was flying over the island. As he had spent all of his films underwater, he could not photograph the precise moment in which the alleged object was flying.
Therefore, he pretended to be taking the pictures by pointing the camera towards the object. In order to get something for real, he ran into his cabin to get new films. When he returned the flying saucer was vanished and he lost his opportunity. He then decided to take several pictures of the island, its skies and sea. Later, at home, he would take his chance to mock a UFO up in the island’s landscape. The Captain of the ship, Carlos Bacellar, ordered Barauna to develop his films while still onboard. Barauna developed some of his rolls and showed them to the Captain. Bacellar thought he had seen a flying saucer in the negatives and showed them to the crew who agreed there was something in the picture.
Actually, because they lacked any technical skills, they thought to have seen something when they did not see anything. Barauna was lucky that the Captain did not impound his negatives. He was lucky again that there was no photographic paper in the ship in order to develop the pictures and show clearly whether he had captured anything in his camera.
New compared to the scene of the form:
Barauna took the negatives home and started to work on manipulating the pictures in his lab. As he had not photographed any flying saucer the pictures showed only the island, the sky, the sea and parts of the ship. He then used two bus chips to make his flying saucer. Those chips had a Saturn-shaped look when one was put on top of the other.
The chips were then hung by a dark thread and placed against a dark background. Barauna made a double exposure with the island’s landscape and it was done! Now a flying saucer appears in the skies of the island. The picture was not out of focus or blurred, because Barauna applied all of his expertise in it. He calculated light and shadow for the flying saucer. He realized that it was a great opportunity in life to collect excellent financial returns.
Moreover, he was a freelancer at that time and wanted to take the opportunity to make himself known worldwide. He put the best of him in that masterpiece and kept to himself the secret about the hoax. Days later when the Navy asked for his negatives he would not give them the ones he had made at the ship – those ones did not show anything in the skies. Instead, he gave the ones he had just prepared by displaying the island and the chis.
Experts from the Navy and the magazine Cruzeiro do Sul analyzed the negatives and did not find any tricks in any of them. The granularity or grain analysis did not detect the manipulation. They would never detect it, since the island grains were the same of the flying saucer’s. Now they were both in the same negative. Those pictures conquered the world and the rest is history.
