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brightest as they approached the formation; and for a brief interval or two all eight blinked out and then came back on again. They sped off, climbing to an altitude above that of the airplane, and then one by one but at random their lights blinked off and the sighting was finished. In repeating mentally their observations, the pilots estimated that it had lasted only about 12 to 15 seconds. Menzel and Boyd (1963), after considering many possible explanations for the sighting, concluded that the pilots must have seen the illuminated discs produced by a red searchlight shining through nearly transparent thin layers of haze. Charles Maney (1965) corresponded with Menzel for several months, considering all of the possible explanations that might come to mind. Apparently Menzel would have really accepted several explanations if Maney had not one by one clearly demonstrated their implausibility. The pilots themselves thoroughly rejected Menzel's searchlight hypothesis, saying that they were familiar with such phenomena, and this was simply not what they observed. The details described above are certainly difficult to reconcile with a searchlight hypothesis. The extremely short duration of the sighting, however, makes one question the absolute accuracy of the account. Did some points develop a bit with discussion and remembering? Furthermore, the velocities of the UFOs calculated at between 6,000 and 12,000 mph through a dense atmosphere at 2,000 feet and including an instantaneous reversal in direction, are, to say the least, extremely difficult to fit into our present concepts of the universe. Light images could perform these maneuvers, but how could they perform some of the other maneuvers reported by the two pilots? This case is presented as an example of the problems met by a UFO researcher. To solve a sighting such as this to everyone's satisfaction would require turning the clock back. 3. Trindade Island, January 16, 1958. Several UFOs had been seen in the vicinity of Trindade Island (a Brazilian possession off the coast of Africa) during its reactivation as a naval base in connection with the International Geophysical Year. In the instance reported here, several sailors at opposite ends of the ship, the Almirante Saldanha, a Brazilian Navy vessel, spotted the approaching object simultaneously and began to shout the news to everyone else. Soon the approximately 100 sailors on board, including various officers, were watching the object. Mr. Almiro Barauna, a professional photographer was preparing to take some photographs and had his camera ready. He shot six frames, of which two failed to show the object. He explained that due to the excitement he was bumped during these two and that they showed only the deck of the ship and the ocean. A dark-room was improvised below deck, the film was developed, and the minute object on it was identified by the sailors (Lorenzen, 1962). This is an excellent sighting because of the number of witnesses involved and the excellent quality of the pictures. Conventional objects can hardly explain the sighting. Menzel and Boyd (1963) and apparently the United States Air Force consider the sighting to be a hoax. Of the available hypotheses, only this one and that of extraterrestrial machines seem to apply. The hoax explanation must also probably fail if the object was really witnessed by 100 sailors. Menzel and Boyd tell the story differently (their version is based on a report from astronomer friends of