Documents / Document
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.
“Salisbury”1 page
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# Flying Saucer Circus Pays A Visit To Lyons
LYONS, Sept. 30 (Rec. 10am).A "flying saucer circus" has visited the skies around Lyons, according to four separate reports from eye-witnesses.
One, a farmer, 28 year-old Yves David, of Chattellerault, insisted that he was actually touched by a "burling" creature in a spacesuit who paralysed him momentarily with a green ray and made off in a trail of sparks. Dr. M. Martinet, of Chambery, a former artillery observer, backed up by 15 witnesses, said he saw a dark grey mass hovering over the mountains at an altitude of about 6000 feet.
The doctor said that when the grey mass lost height it appeared "in the shape of a plate bottomside up," light in colour, with dark patches all round. Then it "shot away like lightning and disappeared." A Valence woman said she saw a "flying saucer" making a whistling noise in a field. She rushed to find witnesses, but the "saucer" had disappeared when they returned, leaving a circle of crops nine feet across broken down as if something had landed there.
## Threatens
## Otahuhu Council
'Strong Action'
AUCKLAND. Today. (PA) The predominantly Labour Othahuu Borough Council has told the national secretary of the Labour Party (Mr. A. J. Macdonald) that it will "take strong action" if the party's candidate for Othahuu, Mr. J. M. Bons, persists in attacking the council in his election campaign.
The council's warning has been prompted by the circulation by an Otahuhu Labour organisation of a pamphlet in which quoted comments by Mr. Deas, the council alleges, are "deliberately calculated to belittle the council and its members to the poical and personal advantage
The council has instructed
Clerk of Qatahunu (Mr. J. R.
son) to write to the national se
# Retired Frenchman Built "Flying Saucers" As Joke
PARIS, October 6 (Rec. 12:30 a.m.).
A retired miner built many of hundreds of the "flying saucers" reported in the sky near Lille, North France, recently, police said yesterday, just for a joke.
The miners made his "saucers" out of strong grey paper on the fire hallow principle. After paraffin-soaked rags had been lit, the warm air lifted the saucers, some about 10 feet in diameter, and off they went into the wind, displaying orange and yellow lights.
The milter, whose name was not disclosed, claimed he had made more than 1000 "saucers." Police found
Police found him out after one landed near a haystack and nearly set it on fire. But filling
But "flying saucer" sightings continue.
## E. R. 41014
Six Red Discs Over The Mountains KLAGENFURT (Austria), Oct. 3 (Rec. 1pm).—Inhabitants of Foederlich, near Klagenfurt, reported seeing six glowing red discs flying in a perfect semicircle over the Karawanken Mountains early yesterday.
Josef Fud, a civil servant, told the police that he watched the discs for some time. Suddenly one of them turned back and zigzagged to the south. The rest, still in perfect formation, disappeared to the north-east.
The absence of wind and the fact that one of them turned back showed that they were not halloons, he said.
A mysterious greeny-blue object was reported last night to have been seen over Dunedin. One person who rang the Daily Times said the object was a "glowing ball which seemed to fall in a north-easterly direction and which remained visible for about two or three seconds." 29 SEP 1954
This report came from a Green Island resident, and soon afterwards two women reported from Wakari that while walking along Balmacewen road they had seen a rocket-shaped object trailing green sparks. It made a whizzing noise like a spinning top, they said.
# MYSTERIOUS LIGHT IN SKY CHRISTCHURCH PRESS REPORTS BY TWO SHIPS
6. $ \sqrt{10} $
A vivid flash of greenish light was seen from the coastal vessel Picton as she was approaching Lyttelton Heads on Tuesday night. The light appeared in the sky off Banks Peninsula. The master of the Picton (Captain D. Newey) reported the occurrence to the Marine Department, Wellington, which arranged for Lyttelton Harbour Board staff to search the sea near where the light had been seen.
Captain E. Sutherland, first pilot at Lyttelton, in the pilot launch, searched as far as four miles outside the heads, but nothing was seen.
When the coastal ship Holmwood arrived at Lyttelton yesterday morning, Captain M. M. McArthur, master of the vessel, reported that, as the vessel was leaving Timaru, a greenish ball of light travelling north-west, was seen high in the sky. The object, which he took to be a meteor, lit up the sea for a considerable distance.
## OTAGO DATTY TIMES
FLYING SAUCER7
Sir,—On Tuesday night about 8 o'clock I was standing looking to the north-east when a blue green light flared up in, the sky over the Knobby Range. It only lasted a second to a second and a-half, and was about half a degree in diameter. It gave the impression of having been moving before it became illuminated, and appeared to be continuing after illumination. It did not move last. Travelling west, it was visible for about three or four degrees.
There was no sound, but the spherical light appeared to me very much like that associated with a static discharge. I am, etc. H. J. McGeorge.
OCT 1954
NOT A COMET,
NOT A STAR,
BUT A VISITOR
FROM AFAR?
OCT 1954
The object he saw was neither a falling star nor a comet, a Roslyn resident who observed the object seen by other people in the sky over Dunedin on Tuesday night, said yesterday.
Of bright electric blue, said the Roslyn man, the object plunged slantwise from near the radio masts on the Peninsula to a spot between North-East Valley and Opoho.
It appeared to be nearly 1ft long and the gaseous-like haze behind it was of purple-red. He observed it for a couple of seconds from the Highgate bridge.
Before the object disintegrated into two unequal pieces, it emitted a few reddish sparks, according to the Roslyn resident. The object then seemed to whirl round and there was blackness. 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.