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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
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## Page 27 Then all of a sudden it disappeared behind a rising cloud bank of low hanging clouds. As far as the observations are concerned, an extensive report was entered in the meteorological log for the benefit of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in DeBilt (Meteorological Station in Holland.) As for the readers of "REVUE", the Capt. reported the following: "Sailing from the S.S. "Great Bear" from Halifax to New York, on Wednesday the 28th July, 1954, 20.10 hours, when it was still daylight, the third mate reported in my cabin to report the sighting of a stramge object in the sky. Accidentally, the first mate, purser, and doctor were in my cabin, and together we went to the bridge. At that time the ship was 50 sea-miles east of Ambrose lightship, the spot where usually the pilot for New York is taken aboard. The weather was fine with a slightly clouded sky and when we arrived at the bridge we actually sighted an object in the south-west, standing approximately 59 degrees above the horizon. The third mate measured the altitude with the sextant, while at the same time a compass-gauging of the object was taken. It appeared that the object did not move in a horizontal travel (east- west), but ascended in a vertical direction with a speed of approximately half a degree (55 km.) per two minutes. (Note the translator: approximately 1,000 M.P.H.) The object was to be compared to a full moon, but measuring only half the diameter of that celestial body. It showed, just like the moon, bright and dark spots. After approximately 10 minutes, the object disappeared behind a rising bank of low-hanging clouds and wasn't seen after. All the time the object could easily be watched with the naked eye and naturally with our binoculars. I have seen photos of so-called flying saucers and do admit the resemblance. On the basis of the cloudiness the distance was estimated at 4,000 meters (4,400 yds.)" Signed: J.P. Boshoff, Captain. When on arrival in New York the news of the sighted Flying Saucer became known, the ship was crowded by reporters and press photographers. That very night Capt. Boshoff was taken to the Television Studio, where he related his experience of that evening. His comment was that from the reactions in America, he was convinced that at least 80% of the American population do believe in the existence of Flying Saucers. This report was taken from the Dutch Magazine "REVUE". Translated by CSI committee member Mr. Henk J. Hinfelaar, *** IRISH'PICTORIAL' 19th September, 1955. On the 29th August, 1955, Mr. Costello, Prime Minister of Ireland, officially opened the Ninth General Assembly International Astronomical Union Congress, in the Ambassador Cinema, Dublin. Mr. Costello stated "that the meeting of 600 astronomers from 41 countries was the biggest Astronomical Congress ever held, and certainly was the biggest congress or any sort ever held in Ireland." FOOTNOTE: This congress was held in private, no reporters were allowed. We can only conjecture at what transpired at the Conference, but we feel that the UFO was one, if not the primary, topic.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.