You’ve most certainly come across this famous UFO photo at least once before. It’s been printed on almost all books regarding UFOs and such phenomena. The famous Trinidade Island UFO photograph.

Wikipedia:

At 12:00 pm on January 16, 1958, Brazilian ship Almirante Saldanha, taking part in projects of the International Geophysical Year, was preparing to sail away from Ilha de Trindade, off the coast of the state of Espírito Santo.

Among the crew of the ship, there was a member of the Brazilian Air Force, Captain José Teobaldo Viegas, the submarine photographer Almiro Baraúna, several scientists and a group of highly trained explorers.

Reportedly Captain Viegas was on the deck with several scientists and members of the crew when he suddenly noticed a flying object, which had a “ring” around it, just like Saturn. Witnesses present reportedly saw the UFO at the same time.

It reportedly came toward the island from the east, flew towards the “Pico Desejado” (Wished Peak), made a steep turn and went away very quickly to the northwest.

As soon as the object was noticed, Almiro Baraúna was sought for photography. After getting the camera and going up the quarter-deck, he managed to take several pictures of the object.

After being disclosed, the pictures were exhaustively analyzed by the Laboratório de Reconhecimento Aéreo da Marinha (Brazilian Navy’s Aerial Reconnaissance Laboratory) and by the Serviço Aerofotogramétrico Cruzeiro do Sul. All the pictures were considered genuine, taken from a real occurrence, with the certification of military personnel. The pictures even received confirmation from Juscelino Kubitschek, president of Brazil at that time.

To this day because of the certification of the witnesses and the official recognition, the object in Almiro Baraúna’s pictures remains unexplained.

Well it turns out that Almiro Barauna hoaxed the photograph and has fooled the entire world since. The superb website Forgetomori has the the scoop:

This Sunday, a major TV show in Brazil, “Fantastico”, aired a bombshell about the Trindade Island’s UFO (click for the original video and transcript in Portuguese). This is one of the most celebrated cases in ufology, so when a friend of the author of the famous photos, Almiro Barauna, tells in a recorded interview that she:

“heard from the photographer himself: he hoaxed the images, it was a montage. ‘He got two spoons, joined them and improvised a spaceship, using as background his home fridge. He photographed on the fridge door and object with a perfect lighting, because the calculated everything, he wasn’t dumb. He laughed a lot’, said Emilia Bittencourt.”

So this is a bombshell, especially because the TV show also reported that “Barauna’s files are with a niece, who didn’t want to record an interview, but she confirms the hoax.” A friend says she heard from the photographer details of how he hoaxed the world-famous UFO photos, and the niece who guards his files confirming it. A bombshell.

Since 2003 we have been calling attention to evidence that the photos may have been hoaxed, going from the inversion of the images of the UFO in different shots, to radical changes in background clouds while the elapsed time was claimed to be less than 20 seconds. In the years since then we have been ongoing on our research and found several new pieces of evidence, which will soon be presented in full.

Even so, the detail revealed by “Fantastico” and Bittencourt that the model used for the hoax was made up of two metallic spoons caught us by surprise – just as anyone else.

Read the rest of the story here.

As most of the old photographs of unexplained phenomena out there, this one was done for monetary gains. It angers me, but at the same time, feel glad that we are starting to uncover the true nature of what was once thought as “unexplained”. I don’t know, maybe science is helping us dig for the truth, or maybe it’s time that is on our side; for you see people who were part of the ‘old paranormal’ realm are getting older. Most are starting to come-clean and expose the truth as they face their own mortality issues. I guess they want to go on with a clear conscious. I would as well.

Thanks to Willy S. for the tip.