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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.
“Sea”47 pages
Mr. Halstead, the Acting Minister cf Defence, called on the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall W.H. Merton, for the fullest co-operation in the inquiry. Now let Capt. W.T. Rainbow, pilot of the aircraft, tell you of his, his crew's, and his passenger's experience. This is a copy of Capt. Rainbow's official report to the Director of Air Intelligence, Wellington;- "On the night of the 31st October, 1955, I was Captain of Flight 108 proceeding from Wellington to Auckland. We departed from Paraparaumu in excellent weather, and conditions remained so until we ran into a warm front which was lying across our track at Raglan Reporting Point and extended out to the west where it lay in a N.E. - S.W. direction. At sunset visibility was excellent, due to a full moon and little cloud over the air route. At 2006 hrs. as I was looking towards the southwest direction, a very brilliant light caught the corner of my eye. This light was positioned above 8/8ths cloud, the tops of which appeared to be about 6000 ft. and also below scattered middle cloud. My first impression was that it was a meteor, or a planet setting in the Southern declination, but after closer investigation I could see that it was moving by about 2000 ft. above the cloud tops, and it was changing its light intensity from a bright hard light to a brilliant light in a cycle of approximately 3 seconds and changing colour from white-yellow-orange to red. It appeared to be to the west of Waitara and at the same altitude as us. I then asked the co-pilot, F/O S. Trounce, to have a look towards our tail and to tell me what he thought the light could be. At first his impressions were the same as mine, but he could not understand the change of brilliance in the light, its colour, or the fact that it was overtaking us at the same altitude. He also suggested that I open the window to eliminate any refraction error, but it made no difference to the object. I then asked him to go to the cabin and ask a Mr. Tuckett who is a Civilian Aviation Officer and an experienced pilot, to watch the light and to ask if he thought it was a planet. During the co-pilot's absence I called Wellington Control and asked if there were any known aircraft to the west of New Plymouth, and their answer was negative. I next called them and told them there was a bright light to the west of New Plymouth and to ask Flight 135 if he could see it: the last part of my message was jammed by Wellington Control who were at that time doing just that. I next called up and said that this bright light was changing colour, and passing to the West of us at a distance of, if I remember rightly, 10-15 miles, and at the same time giving them incorrect call sign Flight 135. E/O Trounce then returned to the cockpit, when at this time the object was just west of our wingtip and still at the same altitude as ourselves. Our Auto pilot was engaged on the same course of 330 degrees compass as it had been for the last 10 minutes since Ohura check point, and this I checked to ensure that I was not turning towards the west and so explain the object's changed position in relation to our course. I could also see the object flying in and out of a few tops of the cloud which was now building up as we approached the front. After a further close look and discussion with the co-pilot, I then told him to go back to the cabin and waken Air Commodore Cohen and to get him to have a look at this object and so confirm what we were seeing. As the co-pilot was in the cabin, we entered the front, and knowing that there was no aircraft on the air route, I climbed up to 9000 ft., whereupon the object was easily picked up below us and ahead. After several more minutes observation, I obtained our clearance to come down
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.