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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.
“Open Minds”13 pages
Dear Price The following is an extract from a letter received by a friend of mine in Air Department who takes an interest in flying saucers and such like reports. It would be interesting to have your version of this episode to try and elucidate what's what and who's who. "Received a letter from one of our members in Napier a few days ago telling of a strange bowl-shaped object that he saw fall from a clear sky. As the object fell it made a hissing sound, hit the wharf pier he was standing on and then bounced high and landed on a Government survey vessel. Our witness noted the shape of the object, tells us the object had a lid or was closed on top and had two forked-like prongs protruding from the bottom. The officers of the vessel remarked on the objects most unusual features and plastic-like material appearance. They told our witness, who went back later for further study and to possibly obtain the object to forward us, that they had tossed the object over the side. It could not be found by our observer who was informed that it floated when thrown into the water. Our observer does not believe these government men tossed object in the sea, and nor do I if the object truely could not be identified by them and was witnessed to fall from a clear sky. This incident was reported to have happened at 2.30 p.m. on the 16th October on the Napier Wharf. The survey vessel No. 3566, "Lockland" commanded by Lt Price returned to Auckland a week back but I just missed making a phone contact. The boat is now back in Napier waters and is not expected back here before Xmas. Here is a copy of our witness's sketch forwarded. Our witness, Lt. D. N. Price, R.N.Z.N. S. D. M. L. 3556A. C/o Navy Office WELLINGTON. and address to Send to . Pass to the Golden Gate where they reply received
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.