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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.
“Christchurch”32 pages
extract from the"Asheville Citizen" Feb 12,1953. JET CHASES RED OBJECT OVER STATE . MARINE PLANE NO MATCH FOR STRANGE BODY. Cherry Point N.C. The Marine Corps reported today that one of it's jet planes had chased and then lost -- a red lighted object that flashed through the sky at astonishing speed . An F9F Panther jet fighter pilot chased the object over coastal North Carolina Monday night an official Marine Corps said, but the speedy jet turned out to be no match for the object, whatever it was. The Marine Corps statement was issued at headquarters of the Second Marine Air Wing here. It included the report of First Lt. Era Balocco, 24, of Antioch, Calif, the pilot who chased the object. The statement gave these details: Planes at the Marine Auxiliary Air Station at Edenton, N.C. had been alerted by a Navy signal tower at Norfolk, Va, to watch for a silver object which had been reported sighted from the ground over an area near the Virginia - N.C. border. cruising around for half an hour. He then took a southerly course to return to his base at Edenton. Over Washington, N.C. I saw what looked like an aeroplane with red lights which appeared below at about 20000 feet. What caused me, Balocco said, to look back at the object was the fact that it moved from below me 10000 ft vertically in a matter of seconds. Balocco said that he turned about and chased the object at a speed of better than 500 mph but was unable to gain on it. He estimated the object was about ten miles away from him during the three to four minutes chase. At that distance, he said, the object was about a quarter of an inch wide and three inches long. The object was the colour of white heat and it threw out a red glow behind it. It had two red lights on the left hand side; bouncing and flashing off the end, encircling an arc. Balocco said he seemed to gain on the object for a time but the plane suddenly dropped from his altitude and disappeared towards the coast. Balocco called in other planes to help in the search. Captain Thomas W. Riggs was one of several pilots who responded. Riggs said he sighted an object flying low near the Carolina coast but couldn't identify it. The Marine Corps said it later received a call from Gerald Midget, a farmer living near Oriental, on the coast. Midget reported seeing a flash in a desolate swampy area, and then a ground fire. Marine helicopters searched the swampland and found a small forest fire but no signs of a crash. The Marine Corps statement said the object was first sighted by a helicopter, which reported the incident to the Navy tower at Norfolk. A Marine Ground Control Interceptor Squadron failed to make any contact. Meanwhile, Balocco had answered the Navy alert. BALOCCO, THE MARINE CORPS SAID, IS AN EXPERIENCED PILOT WITH 1000 HOURS OF AIR TIME, 500 OF THEM IN JET PLANES.
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