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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.
“The Advance”22 pages
CHARTED PLOT OF CAPTAIN W.T.RAINBOW'S AND CE Flight 108 normally departs Paraparumu at 6.25 p.m.- arrives Auckland 8.20 p.m. 31st October schedules were late, Flight 108 arrived Auckland at 8.52pm
The planet's position relevant to A/C. Any movement would not be visually detectable to crew provided A/C maintained constant heading. Capt. Rainbow is positive his aircraft remained on course.
Near Tahora (marked "X") is the area three pilots sighted 12 - 15 orange-red discs in the sky on 24th May 1954 in daylight.
The aircraft was a National Airways Corporation's Douglas DC3, Reg. No. ZK-AZN
AS ESTABLISHED & DRAWN BY HAROLD H. FULTON. DOMINION PRESIDENT CSI.
Mysterious "Flying Light","like rotating Marine Beacon" overtook and passed flight 1080 10-15 mls to port (later corrected to 5 mls.) Est.duration of sighting 5-10 mins. (8.06 - 8.16p.m.) "UFL" travelled est. 105 miles in $ 7 \frac{1}{2} $ mins. (average). Est. speed therefore 840 M.P.H.
## UKU
## HAMILTON
Another or same "Flying Light" sighted two hours later by two men in boat off Te Uku. "Light" was tailing southbound T.E.A.L. DC6 with a horizontal zig-zag flight motion. Reported by Mr W. Dryland & Mr.R. Moon of
At 10.50 pm. Mr. & Mrs. Daysh of Kawhai (same night) sighted brilliant white - orange "light" approaching them at speed. "light" suddenly stopped, hovered and then climbed vertically till out of sight. This flight characteristic reported by observers of quite a number of other "Flying Lights" which reached CSI Headquarters during November. An appreciable number reported that the "Lighted Objects" appeared to change colour and rotate. Excellent sources recently informed CSI that R.N.Z.A.F. Vampire pilot (based at Ohakea) observed "Flying Light" same evening.
## OHURA
Planet Venus - Azimuth & Altitude 31st October 1955, 8.10 pm. G.H.A. 290.55. L.H.A. 175.05 E. Latitude 38 $ ^{\circ} $ S Longtitude 175 E. Declination S18.26. Azimuth 246 $ ^{\circ} $ T, Altitude -0.39 at sea level.
Mr. I.L. Thomsen,Director of Carter Observatory Wellington calculated that Venus's setting time as for aircraft flying at 8,000ft was 8.19 pm on 31st October. ( persumably allowing for 6 defraction effect.) 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.