They're not Oompa Loompas, they've dyed their skin

I don't actually intend to take all these articles from British newspapers, they're just the first ones I find. Here's the Sun:

ONE of the world’s last ‘uncontacted Indian’ tribes has been photographed from the air near the Brazil-Peru border.

The photos were taken by global organisation Survival International, over one of the remotest parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil’s Acre state.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said: "These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct."

There are more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, with more than half living in either Brazil or Peru.

They are in danger of being forced off their land, killed or dying from new diseases.

Survival International supports 82 countries working for tribal peoples' rights.

And here's a picture of said tribe:



Now, I'm not entirely sure I believe the claim that this really is a lost tribe. I mean, if they are, we have no way of communicating with them - so how do we know they've absolutely never run into other humans?

I buy that they've pretty much shut themselves off from civilization, but I'm not sure it's possible for there to be a tribe that has literally never seen any people who were not part of that tribe.

However, that aside, I have a bigger question - why send a plane? Assuming for the moment (and the rest of this post) that they are in fact a lost tribe, surely the sight of a large, bird-shaped-but-clearly-not-a-bird object, making A LOT of noise, would probably be a bad idea? Maybe it would, I don't know, cause them to threaten it with their weapons, as they're doing in that picture?

I'll give them some credit, though - a helicopter would be worse. It looks like a giant flying bug which is about to swoop down and eat you.

My initial thought was that they should send a hot air balloon. If you were to forget everything you know about aircraft and physics, and picture a flying machine, wouldn't it look sort of like a hot air balloon? Plus, you can actually see the person inside, and they can yell down to the ground.

Then somebody pointed out the obvious - those guys have spears. You're in a balloon. It's going to end badly.

So I'm stuck - how can you get photographs of this group from afar, without excessively scaring them or killing yourself?

--Ryan