The Barra da Tijuca Photos
The account
Two journalists photographed a flying saucer over Barra da Tijuca, in a sequence published by O Cruzeiro magazine.
What investigators found
Analysts pointed out shadows on the disc that do not match the landscape, and most researchers consider the photos a fake.
The story
In May 1952, reporter João Martins and photographer Ed Keffel, of O Cruzeiro magazine, said they saw a disc-shaped object fly over Barra da Tijuca, at the time an almost deserted area of Rio. Keffel shot a sequence of photos that the magazine ran with great fanfare, at a time when flying saucers were a topic all over the world.
The images were examined by the Brazilian military and circulated abroad. Over time, however, researchers noticed that the light on the disc comes from a different direction than the light falling on the trees and hills in the same scene, a sign of a composite image or of a small object tossed near the camera. The authors never admitted a hoax, but today the case is remembered more as a piece of the era's sensationalist journalism than as proof.