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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“Christchurch”32 pages
# WHO ARE YOU KIDDING MR. QUARLES. COLOURFUL "FLYING LIGHT" CAUSES STIR. N.Z'S. FIRST OFFICIAL INQUIRY Towards the end of September, and increasingly with the progress of October, we noted from press cuttings and correspondence that "Unidentified Flying Objects" were once again showing promise of giving more than average attention to Australasian Territories. This followed the greater activity being experienced in Great Britain and the U.S.A. The N.Z. reports were only mentioned by the press local to the event, so the public were completely unaware of this new appearance. On the 20th October, however, Flying Saucers hit the headlines throughout the world's press. Donald E. Quarles, Secretary of Air, U.S. Airforce, made a dramatic announcement. "There are no Flying Saucers. The Airforce is winding up its 8-year investigation - BUT shortly you'll start seeing real Flying Saucers, we are making them," stated Mr. Quarles. Never in the history of our subject have I read such a disgustingly deceptive official statement. Press Association wires were good enough to carry a mild version of my reactions. I pointed out that this was the third time since 1947 that the U.S. Airforce had officially wound up its Saucer probing. They had in this time changed the code name for Saucer Investigating teams five times. (Project Saucer, Twinkle, Sign, Grudge, and lastly, Bluebook.) Civilian investigators will wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Quarles' assertion that shortly "revolutionary Saucerlike American aircraft will take the sky and give the illusion of Saucers". BUT, Mr. Quarles, we predicted three years ago that future 'explain away experts' would pounce on this very tangible explanation of UFO sightings as soon as such terrestrial unorthodox aircraft showed promise of taking the air. We know, too, that the numerous UFO sightings expected to follow the close approach of Earth to Mars next September may well be further explained as Balloons, Rockets, artificial Satellites experiments and tests, etc., let loose by many scientists practising for the International Geophysical Year July '57 - December '58. No sooner had the diminishing ranks of sceptics cupped their hands in thanks-giving following Secretary Quarles' statement than an extremely local UFO incident captured prominent press mention throughout New Zealand, and rocked them back on their heels. Sure, it was only a "flying light", but any "light" capable of behaving in the manner of this one must have been attached to some "thing" more agile and local than a planet winking on the horizon. The National Airways Corp. crew report was quickly followed by the first (publicly announced) official enquiry in New Zealand. Mr. Shand, Minister in Charge of Civil Aviation, on learning the details of the report stated "I have called for a full immediate report, this is the first circumstantial and apparently reliable report on such an object we have yet had, and I am especially interested because of the character of the witnesses, whose reputations cannot be questioned."
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.