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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.
“Headquarters”37 pages
# FLYING SAUCERS. about 20 feet above the sea, parallel with the Llandovery Castle, and travelling in the same direction. "Gaining a little in speed, after a second or two the whole shape disappeared without a sound, from the rear issuing fierce flames which shot out to about 1/2 the length of the object. It appeared that there must be something like a huge furnace inside the thing, but still we could hear no noise from the flames. No windows could be seen, only a band of metal round the entire thing, which, if it had been a complete cigar-shape, would have been centrally situated. "The object was very large, about 4 times the length of the Llandovery Castle, and at a rough guess about 4 times as high. "We had a wonderful view, but in a few seconds it disappeared. No light was seen forward as it left, it just vanished soundlessly in the darkness. For awhile we thought we were the only ones on deck at that late hour, but walking to the prow of the ship we saw there one of the ship's officers with a few passengers, the entire party of whom had seen the same thing. Whether it is recorded in the ship's log, I know not, "The story I related to my husband and friends, but without them showing any enthusiasm. I let the matter drop, and to my surprise read later of Captain Bicknell's experience over Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1951, and saw the exact shape in an illustration of what I had seen and drawn previously for my husband and several friends." (Mrs. King's sketch of the object enclosed with her report tallies in most major respects with a sketch of the object seen by Capt. Bicknell and others over it. Kilimanjaro in February 1951, the only perceptible differences being that Mrs. King's reported object did not possess a rear fin as did the Bicknell object; nor did it possess any more than one dark, encircling band about its middle. The Bicknell object had several bands encircling its middle.) ## SPECIAL CAMERA We have on our files a photograph of the U.S.Air Force's specially constructed Camera. 200 have been manufactured for the express purpose of photographing Flying Saucers whenever the opportunity presents itself. The camera has two lenses arranged stereoscopically, one lens taking normal photographs, the other fitted with a diffraction grid takes spectro-analysis photographs. From the exposed colour-film shots Scientists are able to determine the exact composition of luminous objects.
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