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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.
“Sea”47 pages
# ore Observers Confirm # "NORTHERN ADVOCATE" # Seeing Strange Object 凯6 NOV 195本 "I HAVE never seen anything like it in my life." That is how Mr R. P. Wynniath, of Ouerahi, confirmed statements yesterday by Mrs A. Kasper and Mr John Clark on the strange object they had seen in the Northland sky on Saturday night. Several other people today added confirmation of the phenomenon. Mr Wynniatt said he had an ideal view of the object. He was on top of the hill in Commons Street, Oneraht, when the sun had just disappeared over the horizon. He was not sure of the time. "I first noticed the object between Hikurangi and Kimo," he said today. His description of the object was Cigar-shaped with a steady bright light at the front end, slate-coloured in the centre and a flickering yellow light at the back. It travelled at a great height at a great speed to disappear into the evening glow over Waipu. ## SIZE OF DIG BOMBER The "thing" looked about the size of a Super Fortress bomber. Mr Wynniatt had a 15-second view and had time to call his children and a neighbour. It travelled a slightly curved course and appeared to rise slightly over the Tangihua Range. He first thought the object was a meteor, but soon decided it was not because it was not being attracted to earth. It did not diminish and the only reason he could not keep in sight was its disappearance into the sunset. At 7.15 p.m. on Saturday night, Mrs D. Saies, of Moorewa, her neighbour and two children caught sight of the object. It was travelling east-to-west into the sunset. "It was like a silver-white rocket," said Mrs Sales today. "There was no dropping tail and its shape was definite." There were no stars in the sky at the time. Up Kaikanui Road, Opuawhanga, Mrs B. Dale was watering her garden about 7.20 p.m. ## SEEMED VERY LOW She looked up and saw the "thing," "I thought it was very low," said Mrs Dale over the telephone this morning. "It looked like a glowing ball." white" smoke seemed to trail behind. By the time Mrs Dale had called her his dead and children the object had disappeared over a hill. Mrs H. W. Martin's children let out excited whoops from their Otaika orchard. They called their mother to see the "shooting star." But it was no shooting star, according to Mrs Martin when she called at the Advocate office today. "We have long telephone wires to our house." she said. "When the object passed over they gave off quite a 'boom' noise." "I wonder what it was?" Mrs Martin asked. ## WHAT WAS IT? "After reading all the reports I have often thought I would like to see one of them, but I never thought I would." Mrs Martin saw the object for only a few seconds. She thought it looked like a star which "flattened out" as it disappeared. The Martin children were still excited yesterday morning and rushed off to school to tell their teacher. "When you see one you know there is something in the reports," Mrs Martin said. During his experience at son he had seen plenty of "queer things," including meteors and shooting stars." There was no doubt in his mind "about this one." Ann Montague (13) of Second Avenue, had a good look at the phenomenon, and was able clearly to describe it. Mr G. Brocas, of Hikurangi rang to say he had heard a lot about flying saucers, but he had previously not put too much credence in them. Mrs E. Steer, next door, and at least four other Second Avenue residents and a visitor from Marlborough, also caught a glimpse. Diagram of "the thing" drawn from Mr Wynniatt's description. Its steady speed convinced Mr Brocas that it was something well out of the ordinary. This object appeared to be covered light; there was a semi-circular and darker patch further back. A light seemed to precede the object — "just like the bow of a boat cutting through the water." A Maori family up the road had also seen it. They were very excited. ## ★ Eighteen-year-old Donald Ross and his sister, 13-year-old Beverley, were burning scrub on their father's 70-acre holding at Sherwood Rise when what they now firmly believe to be a "flying saucer" flashed across the sky. It came in a blue streak from over the Whangarei Heads and vanished above Portland. They described it as an oval-shaped object, about the size of a half-full moon, bluish in colour and emitting blue flames and sparks from its sides. It was about 7.30 p.m.—with dusk closing deeply into night—when they spotted the object. Their father, Mr S. A. Ross, who was working nearby, was called to look at the object, but it had vanished before he located it. Both Donald and Beverley tell identical stories if its appearance. It came in a rising arc over the Heads, seemed to dip, and vanished like the switching off of an electric light in the sky above Portland. From that moment until today, the family has talked over the phenomenon with the result that now they are firmly convinced the object was a flying saucer. # Strange Objects Over Hamilton HAMILTON, Tue. (P.A.).—Strange objects have been reported in Hamilton skies. A man reported today that at 7.28 p.m. on Saturday, while travelling with his wife and two children in his car on the main street, he saw a strange-looking object travelling from east to west across the northern sky at a terrific speed. He said it looked like a tennis ball with an elongated tail, and that it had strong lights underneath but was in shadow on top, and was travelling fast and straight. His wife and children also saw the object, which was visible for some seconds before disappearing behind a bank of dark clouds. It was not a meteor or an aircraft, they said. Later a letter was received in the mail from an 11-year old boy which said: "On Saturday evening at 7.30 p.m., while travelling from Hillerest to Hamilton, my father and I saw a strange brightly-lit object going eastwards very high and travelling fast. "It was like a huge cigar, only the end went off into a long tail. It had a bright white light in the forward part and the middle of it. "At first we thought it was an air freighter, but it had no wings and was travelling too fast." The letter was countersigned by the boy's father. See explanation
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