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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.
“Nevers”58 pages
The objects that landed were not Meteorites, because they travelled horizontally, manoeuvred around hills, stopped in mid-air, and landed vertically. If they are machines, somebody or something made them. If the builders are not earthlings but come from outer space, as the Air Force itself once suggested as a possibility, in an official release two years ago, we would like to know who they are ... C.S.I. (N.Z.) received many more details of this incident, and learned that C.S.I. (U.S.A.) had made a personal investigation. The March, 1953, issue of the Quarterly Review of this American body, told how many people had been overcome by a violent smelling oily mist that was thrown off by the object described above. Quite a number of people were seriously ill from the effects of this evil-smelling mist-gas. Doctors likened the effects of this oily substance on human beings, to that of Mustard Gas. Radio reception in the area at the time of the landings was also affected, and a piece of black plastic-like substance was later found on the site of one of the landings. We understand that the people affected by the gas all recovered, and the Air Force did investigate. The refusal to do so in the first instance was regarded as a blind, to prevent possible panic and further disturbing public reactions. I am certain that this incident, like others on file, was no fairy story - there were too many people involved, some prominent. In all the reported landings of strange objects, and the accounts, experiences, etc. of those who have come face to face with them, there has been no evidence of open hostility or attack from the occupants of these craft. Rather, they have chosen to temporarily handicap inquisitive humans by throwing out those stenches, gases, and balls of fire, whilst they made good their retreat. Readers will remember the Scoutmaster incident. Sonny DesVerger's experience was thoroughly investigated by the Air Force. I have no hesitation in saying that I am sure that this was a genuine encounter with a craft from outer space. DesVergers, you will recall, was temporarily stunned by a ball of fire, brilliant white, and an overpowering stench, when he ventured too close to the approximately 30 foot disc, which had a transparent dome on the top centre. He claimed that he saw MEN in it, but was scared to give all the details as it might cause another "Orson Welles" panic. The Air Force Officers who interviewed him, it was reported, talked to him "like a Dutch Uncle", impressing on him the necessity of remaining quiet with the other details for a certain time, which they specified. The two Boy Scouts who were with DesVergers were interrogated also, and their story could not be flawed. This disc, too, was hovering apprx. 10 feet from the ground, in the desolate country of the Florida Everglades. I will now list with some detail other instances of this White Substance and threads from the sky. Although the two following incidents were published in the New Zealand Press, C.S.I. received greater details from their French Representative, Michel Sejourne, of Paris. At D'Oloron, near the Spanish border, in early October 1952, about a dozen people saw, at 12.50 p.m., in a clear dark Blue sky, the following happenings. In the sky appeared a long slender cylinder, looking like the mast of a ship, inclined at 45 degrees. It was moving slowly in a straight line towards the South-West, at about 2000 metres altitude. The object was whitish but not luminous, and from its top extremity a trail of smoke escaped. M. Prigent, who had worked in a Meteorological Office, took his Field Glasses there were no markings on the side of the cylinder, but there suddenly appeared at some distance from the object, fore and aft, a real flight of other objects, reminding one of what is described as "Flying Saucers". These Saucers at first appeared to have the shape of a misformed ball, but through the Field glasses M. Prigent could see a central sphere, Bright Red in colour with a Yellowish ring all around. This much inclined towards the earth uncovered the superior part of the sphere, and hid most of the inferior part. (Their appearance was just like that of the Planet Saturn.) These Saucers moved in pairs, keeping the same distance between them. They were not advancing in a straight line, but with the rapid and short movement of a zig-zag.
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