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NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

NZDF / RNZAF via Internet Archive · 2010-12 · 445 pages · text by OCR

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.

  • p. 11 …I have never seen a planet move like that. My co-pilot (First Officer S G…
  • p. 22 …I can only add if anyone believes my something they have never seen then here's…
  • p. 50 …they have landed, someplace, but I have never been able to track it down, but as…
  • p. 51 …the space people? A. It was not. Never deliberate on their part, but our aggression and…
  • p. 52 …Well I was taken pretty close to one other planet like that of Venus but never…
  • p. 53 …to class-room, for graduation which is never attained because eternity is eternity. Do they have…
  • p. 62 …lot on this great took it has never been strong yet I gave my standing son…
  • p. 72 …I never read who-dunnits, and I shun thrillers like poison; I suppose I have to…
  • p. 91 …such things for personal files but have never had copies made. I can see the value…
  • p. 97 …g) No peculiarities except that I have never observed its like before. (h) Solid in appearance…
  • p. 126 …moment. "In all my flying I've never seen anything 'like it," he said today. Air…
  • p. 137 …Someplace, but I have never been able to track it down, but as far as I…
  • p. 138 …the space people? A. It was not. Never deliberate on their part, but our aggression and…
  • p. 139 …Well I was taken pretty close to one other planet like that of Venus but never…
  • p. 140 …to class-room, for graduation which is never attained because eternity is eternity. Q. Do they…
  • p. 145 …we are making them," stated Mr. Quarles. Never in the history of our subject have I…
  • p. 151 …I have never said that the Big Four gathered to discuss the question of the UFO…
  • p. 152 …The real issues at Geneva are not yet known, and may never be, but we are…
  • p. 157 …a subjective reason why more stories have never been related, especially so, where PROMINENT PEOPLE are…
  • p. 158 …Wallace's mother, whom we later interviewed, claimed that her son had never been so frightened…
  • p. 167 …the phenomenon of Horseheads, N.Y., may never be known. ## ******* ## THE SWEDISH GHOST ROCKETS by S…
  • p. 172 …ALTHOUGH THE STORY WAS WIDELY REPORTED, IT WAS NEVER PUBLISHED IN FULL OUTSIDE SCANDINAVIA. NOW Flying…
  • p. 174 …I was never more than three or four minutes walk from the girls, and I reckon…
  • p. 176 …to time in the area, but they never heard of them flying at night. "What I…
  • p. 183 …He could not say whether or not it might be a meteor as he had never…
  • p. 201 …Besides, you never know what they could do to you . . . There is no material we know…
  • p. 213 …Church-because of the probability that they never contracted "original sin." ## Flying Discs Sir,—Periodically, Mr…
  • p. 216 …phenomena, there are many individuals who have never reported "sightings" of their own or knowledge. Hope…
  • p. 222 …France, never to be outdone, when it comes to autumn tourist attractions, has also had its…
  • p. 223 …It is necessary for me to state here that I would never falsely colour or manufacture…
  • p. 224 …They said this because they had never seen a modern deep-water diving suit. What they…
  • p. 231 …first reports were immediately followed by a never-ending chain of fantastic stories mostly created by…
  • p. 242 …I do not know what it was, I have never seen such an object before. President…
  • p. 248 …We have never heard of & find it difficult to imagine any meteors or aurorae presenting such…
  • p. 249 …He says that he and his companions never thought of flying saucers, being sure that it…
  • p. 254 …Civil Aviation Dept for some years, but never with the openness and seriousness of these last…
  • p. 256 # ore Observers Confirm # "NORTHERN ADVOCATE" # Seeing Strange Object 凯6 NOV 195本 "I HAVE never seen anything…
  • p. 257 …the man and his family. "I have never seen anything like it in my life," he…
  • p. 263 …or Martians, they reiterate that astronomers have never made any observations which could indicate a high…
  • p. 271 …With this weight of evidence you could well ask why saucers have never been, officially accepted…
  • p. 272 …chances are greater—a planet we have never even heard of. But wherever they come from…
  • p. 273 …I have never seen a saucer—but at least I have seen Mars! Vow the first…
  • p. 280 Acura shall call the existing currency All Min the Prairie neverer less len Qian FILE. for…
  • p. 286 …The world may never know, although he definitely has had a hand in the disk project…
  • p. 302 …observing of evidences, while those who have never seen a flying saucer make a show by…
  • p. 306 …In 18 years of flying I have never seen anything like it. If it had been…
  • p. 307 …and not forgetting those very important ones never to be forgotten sightings. We sincerely hope you…
  • p. 308 …likes light reading as well, but can never find the time now, so great is the…
  • p. 320 …Another official said that the Air Force had never accepted this theory. By classifying sightings as…
  • p. 321 …I never saw it happen before. If the acceleration explanation is true, then the speeds involved…
  • p. 324 …The Air Force has never denied that such a possibility exists. Some of the personnel believe…
  • p. 332 …more closely, I am sure they would never be so keen to rashly debunk it. Right…
  • p. 356 …These have never been confused with flying saucers as some sources of information contend. Recent events…
  • p. 367 …happenings in the sky that science had never been able satisfactorily to explain. Unger, beginning in…
  • p. 373 …Forefathers, the great majority of their ranks never dreamed of or envisaged that which is ordinary…
  • p. 401 …nuclli open to doubt because there have never been reports of them from sailors, astronomers and…
  • p. 416 …to bright red. "I wish I had never seen it," he said. "It's too fantastic…
  • p. 436 …In spite of all the flying saucer reports all over the world, science has never been…
Dr. Richmond's preliminary inspection indicated that the "web" consisted of a short, weak fiber that looked like cotton or wool. The specimen was passed on to the professor of chemistry at the local college, Dr. Charles B. Rutenber. No immediate explanation or conjecture was forthcoming as to the source of the strange material.

On Tuesday, February 22nd, Dr. Rutenber issued a statement that his findings, based on chemical analysis, showed the mystery substance was cotton, either waste or fibers, that "had been in an explosion and were heavily damaged."

Tests with the college geiger counter showed the material to be radioactive. The doctor's findings on the composition were supported both by Dr. Richmond and Mrs. Hans Bernt, assistant professor of art, who, as an expert in textiles, examined the specimen. Again, no explanation was offered as to the source of the material.

Other reports referred to a similar mysterious deposit found in London and in other major cities last year. It was generally agreed that the substance could have been carried great distances in the upper air and that the cobweb might have knit itself and fallen in a small area pulled down by its own weight. By February 23rd, the local mystery had attracted interest of the Atomic Energy Commission which asked Dr. Rutenber for information on the results of his tests. The Associated Press carried the story on its wire services and the New York correspondent of the London Times expressed an interest because of the similarity to the "web" found last year in London.

Meantime, Mr. Shell who first reported it said the web was rapidly disintegrating and disappearing. While the scientists continued their tests at the college, a new avenue of conjecture was presented by Mr. Lawrence Peer, Plant Manager of the Local dairy. Mr. Peer, supported by Mr. John Stelmak, a chemical engineer of the Westinghouse Electronic Tube Division plant at Horseheads, suggested the possibility that powdered milk, not cotton fibers, was the basis of the substance.

Mr. Peer claimed it was possible that some powdered milk could have passed through a vent pipe and been converted to stringy casein fibers by the 300 degree temperature of the machine. He admitted, however, that a large quantity of milk powder would have been required to cover the half-mile area with the fibers.

Too, the milk theory did not explain the radioactivity, the amount of which prompted the Westinghouse plant to conduct another investigation to discover why the Web" produced a higher count on the testing machines than matter usually taken from the local air. Spokesmen from the plant stated that a metallic content would be more likely to pick up radioactivity than organic matter.

February 24th brought even more confusing and muddled reports. Dr. Rutenber who had held to the "cotton fibers heavily damaged in an explosion" theory, suddenly reversed his decision. He announced that he now was convinced the material was a protein product created by the escape of a hot milk product at the local plant.

The Manager of the chemistry section of the local Westinghouse plant, Mr. John B. Diffenderer, also held to the milk theory. However, the Westinghouse tests showed the contents of the "web" to be only 30% carbon, with quantities of calcium, silica, aluminium, iron and about ten other traceable elements. In the interval the radioactivity had dropped to almost nothing.

Directly opposing the milk theory were the findings at the milk plant where the milk theory first originated. Louis R. Hermann and Robert L. Mix, chemical technicians at the plant, reported, after conducting their own tests, that the material consisted of cotton and wool fibers with peices of fine copper wire mixed in. "It looked like it might have come out of a carpet sweeper bag," they said.

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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.