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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.
“Spencer”2 pages
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## CAME TO SEE THE QUEEN
A Darlinghurst man thinks that "Someone from outer space" may have watch-ed the Queen's arrival in Sydney. He is Mr. H.E.Ireland of Liverpool St. Mr. Ireland claims to have seen a Flying Saucer about 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday February 3, while the Queen was on the Royal Yacht Gothic in Sydney Harbour. He says he watched the "saucer" from the doorway of his knife and die casting factory in Eurke Street. "It hovered east of Sydney several thousand ft up for about ten minutesthen disappeared leaving a blue vapor trail," Mr Ireland said. BRILLIANT LIGHT. "It seemed to be flat and threw a brilliant white light. I called a policeman and he saw what I saw. I knew it couldn't be an ordinary aeroplane. I've flown in all these modern planes -- Constellations and so on. I was Internal Auditor with the R.A.A.F. during the war, therefore I'm not a dill." An R.A.A.F. spokesman said yesterday that he knew of no service plane or balloon which could have been mistaken for a flying saucer on the morning of Feb. 3. (Sydney Sunday Telegraph February 14, 1954.
There has been undoubtable other sightings that we in N.Z. have not received notice of yet from the Australian scene, however we would like to once again record our sincere thanks to Mr Jarrold for his untiring efforts in passing all available information, clippings etc our way. The Overseas Press coverage of the "Flying Saucer" incidents is very poor indeed, we fail to understand the reason for this in the light of the public extreme interest and the tremendous significance of it all, if, as we are certain, the Flying Saucers are real and interplanetary. ( We are referring to the New Zealand Press coverage of overseas Saucer news)
## FROM NEW ZEALAND SKIES
Congratulations due. Mr Douglas Metcalf (C.S.I. DUNEDIN "HONORARY OBSERVER) received a large write up in the Dunedin Star 4,1953. Mr Metcalf has formed a group from a nucleus of local "Honorary Observers" and interested parties. We are most pleased to see Mr & Mrs J.P.Burke have joined this new investigatory team; Mrs & Mrs Burke witnessed one of New Zealands best sightings of a mystery flying object in the early hours of Oct 28 1952. Mr Metcalf has sent C.S.I. a copy of his groups proposed program, it is extensive and most creditable. He is also busy writing a book on "Flying Saucers" over New Zealand and has appealed to C.S.I. headquarters for the particulars of all sightings on our records. Unfortunately C.S.I. is unable to comply immediately for there is no one available to do the tremendous amount of copy work necessary. The President of C.S.I.'s spare time is fully engaged in answering ever increasing mail-range, recording data and producing the Quarterly Review. ("Star" 4, December 1953.)
December 6 1953. 3.11 apistSunday. Two men claim they sighted a flying saucer when they were sunbathing at Devenport, Auckland last Sunday afternoon. We saw a disc dull white in colour, which appeared to be moving at a terrific speed , said Mr E.Moen of 60 Grafton Rd, city today. It moved over a full 80 degree arc in about 10 to 15 seconds." He is emphatic that what they saw was no meteorological balloon. 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.