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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
were removed at the time. The other (Tee) looked immediately in the direction indicated (only about 40° from the direction he was looking) and although of limited observational experience, saw at once that the lights could scarcely be meteors & were definitely not aeroplane lights or similar objects. When first seen by both of us, the lights were in Scorpio (then about 50° above the eastern horizon) & in the space of about 8 seconds moved, in nearly straight paths, past the zenith in an arc of about 90° in the direction of Sirius (then low in the west). The lights were three in number, of similar appearance & each of brightness gauged by us to be less than that of Mars, while one of us (Tee) hazards an estimate of their total luminosity as being of the first or 2nd magnitude, but with small reliability attached. In appearance, they resembled large red blood corpuscles with a maximum diameter estimated at I5 to 20 minutes: Their colour was predominantly red, with a strong yellow tinge according to one of us (Laird) and a blue tinge according to the other. The colour appeared uniform over each oval, but not the intensity: they appeared hazy & insubstantial, & we could not detect shape boundaries to them. They were not in a straight line, but roughly kept pace with each other: their general line, however, was roughly at right angles to the direction of motion of the group, & one of us (Laird) considers that the central one remained in the front, giving a V formation; but the southern pair remained closer to each other than the northernmost light, while the angular separation of the two outer lights was about 8 degrees. The lights left no trail as they traversed their paths. There was some motion within the group -- they swerved smoothly, but irregularly and separately, (especially the southernmost one, according to T.). No large change in their apparent size was noticeable during their transit, (except possibly near the end), which suggests that the lights were at a considerable altitude. During the last second or two, they faded rapidly, then vanished simultaneously: one of us (Tee) thinks they swerved towards one another during this last period, possibly an effect of perspective. When they vanished, they were approaching the hazy regions of the sky, in the west. During the transit (Laird) replaced his spectacles, but the lights remained hazy to him, as they were throughout to the other observer, who has good eyesight, and, while keeping his eyes on the lights attempted to point the telescope towards them, however they were moving so rapidly that it would have been very difficult to find them, let alone keep them in view (only degree for the telescope)-- besides, the telescope was not in focus. We immediately discussed the lights, noted the time 6.55 p.m. & the wind direction (from southwest at our level), and decided to cancel the night's observations to note our impressions. (The notes were recorded 10 minutes after the observations) Various possibilities for the identity of the lights were investigated,with the following results:- Searchlights on haze or cloud:-(a) The lights were not in a straight line, as they must have been if one beam were responsible: 2 or 3 searchlights following similar paths over such an arc seem unlikely. (b) Their colour was ruddy. (c) Not a trace of any beam could be seen outside the three oval patches of light, although haze was forming in low lying regions. (d) No haze was perceptible over their path, except possibly near the end. The following morning, enquiries were made of the Naval Depot, Whenuapai & Hobsonville aerodromes & Army A.A. & Coastal Defence Batteries; all were definate that no searchlights had been operated by their services on Sunday evening. Aeroplane lights:- In appearance they did not resemble aeroplane lights, being large, red diffuse patches. Perhaps they might have been spotlights from aeroplanes, shining onto cloud layers, but, as above, there seemed
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