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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.
“The Advance”22 pages
# FLYING SAUCERS ## RECENT AUSTRALIAN SIGHTINGS By courtesy of Mr.E.R.Jarrold Pres.,A.F.S.B. Mackay North Queensland May 17,1953 Captain B.L.Jones an A.N.A.pilot,reported by radio that a strange object,like a lighted glass dome"was manoeuring around his plane,just south of the city. At 6.08 p.m,he reported to CIVIL AVIATION Department Control Tower,in Mackay,the object manoeuvred around,his plane a DC3 airliner,then crossed his path and disappeared west,travelling fast. This happened on May 10. A check with the control tower at the airport showed that there were no other aircraft in the vicinity. Mr. W. Overell, who was in charge of the control tower, said he saw the light apparently climbing from about 4000 or 5000ft.west at a terrific rate, untill it vanished, and Captain Jones who still had it under observation then,said it crossed his path again near Freshwater Point. Frank. Hines a radio operator,saw it again at 3 am. the following morning at first as a light to seaward, There were no planes about he said,and puzzled,he switched off the lights in the radio room in order to see it better The object then shot straight upwards at terrific speed,and vanished. Captain Jones said that he and his second pilot had watched the object for about five minutes. There was no possibility, he added, (dueing the course of a radio broadcast) that it could have been a meteorite, the object climbed and dived "yet not erratically" and it's speed had varied between 200 and 700 M.P.H.whilst being viewed. Captain Jones said the object did not emit vapour or sparks, ## May 19, 1953. The Department of Civil Aviation Melbourne Victoria, said that it believes there is some basis for reports of strange objects in the sky. An official spokesman for the department said that an instruction had been issued, that all reports in the future were to be treated as confidential. This was to ensure that those who sighted strange objects would not be deterred from reporting them for fear of being ridicled. Brisbane May 18, Rockhampton's meteorological officer while plotting the course of a balloon with a theodolite, located a bright crescent shaped object in the morning sky. It appeared to be moving in a southerly direction. An airline pilot, Capt.G. Hitchcock also viewed it through the instrument and with the naked eye. It gave the observers the impression that it was suspended in space; it was also glittering and reflecting the early morning sunlight. ## Melbourne May 191953 A group of people at surrey hills yesterday reported seeing a four minute display by a rocket-like ship high in the sky. It appeared to be 100 ft long; the sun shone brilliantly off its sides. A Melbourne astronomer said that the object could not of been a meteor; it is impossible to account for every phenomenon of the sky or the objects that fly about it. OBJECTS HAD BEEN SIGHTED IN THE CLOSE; INMEDIATE VICINITY OF THE FOLLOWING AUSTRALIAN AERODROMES DUEING MAY 1953. MACKEY, ESSENDON, CONNER PARK AND KINGAROY.
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