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NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

NZDF / RNZAF via Internet Archive · 2010-12 · 445 pages · text by GLM-OCR

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.

  • p. 14 …a "Aying saucer" over the Hawock North Hills is claimed to have been obtained by Mr…
  • p. 15 …to be coming slowly down towards the hills. It bore the appearance, she said, of a…
  • p. 20 …They first noticed the light high above the hills behind Bay View. It hovered there for…
  • p. 21 …To-night it will set shortly before 9 o'clock, though, with hills to the west…
  • p. 28 …very powerful one, flashing on the Patterang hill, about a mile distant. First it kept pointing…
  • p. 61 …step they shall be Sahin Discover the Hills will. Often and thing will be set free…
  • p. 72 …On reaching the brow of a hill he saw a brightly lit object coming toward him…
  • p. 94 …the following from the top of Kinbarni Hill : at 3: 32 p.m. shortly after a…
  • p. 125 …large star low down over the Wellington hills drew the attention of a prominent Auckland business…
  • p. 130 …climbed a hill in Lancashire to photograph birds. They set their camera to infinity and directed…
  • p. 132 …Both then disappeared slowly behind the outline of the hill. 北川羌族自治县
  • p. 175 …CLOSE-UP OF THE GREAT GALLOWAY HILLS MYSTERY - WHAT CAN THIS THING BE? This is reported…
  • p. 188 …On February 15 this year two schoolboys were reported to have climbed a hill in Lancashire…
  • p. 189 …Stewart, a farmer, of Saddle Hill, one of the men who saw the fire ball (or…
  • p. 212 # SCIENTIST EXPLAINS STRANGE SKY SIGHTS On top of Kelburn hill two silver observatory domes gleam in…
  • p. 225 The objects that landed were not Meteorites, because they travelled horizontally, manoeuvred around hills, stopped in…
  • p. 233 …This club formed by students of a Primary School, One Tree Hill. Master Kelvin Barton advised…
  • p. 249 …see a bright star, slightly above the hill behind Whakarewarewa, suddenly, "take off" on a circuit…
  • p. 251 …to see the object disappear over a hill in a manner that suggested to him, would…
  • p. 256 …He was on top of the hill in Commons Street, Oneraht, when the sun had just…
  • p. 257 …and at the time was on a hill overlooking the countryside. He was looking toward where…
  • p. 258 …over the penisula and disappeared over Saddle Hill. A boy said it looked like a football…
  • p. 267 …It was a big fireball and, though it seemed to be over the Karori hills, must…
  • p. 278 …Three policemen plodded solemnly into the hills accompanied by the sisters and surveyed the scene of…
  • p. 312 …as far a part as Hamilton East, Hill-croft Whitiora, and Maeroa and which occured right…
  • p. 320 …This corresponds with the rotation of a parabolic antenna located on a nearby hill. As the…
  • p. 327 …vapor, flashing across the sky over Box Hill at 2.30p.m. I saw what appeared…
  • p. 335 …Scoffers were con- founded, however, by the unusual story of a settler at Kauroo Hill. It…
  • p. 336 …time the airship had disappeared over a hill. The object was also seen at Mahono. The…
  • p. 363 …a south-East direction near the Adelaide hills. In the meantime I called my wife who…
  • p. 368 …Southwest had seen flash across the bare hills in straight, silent, horizontal flight, Unger recalled a…
  • p. 379 …191953 A group of people at surrey hills yesterday reported seeing a four minute display by…
  • p. 392 …was well above the line of the hills. When he resumed his journey he saw the…
  • p. 393 …The main light, however, seemed to hover over the Hokonui Hills. For some time it swung…
  • p. 396 …blue object was seen over the Port Hills at Christchurch at 11.45 p.m. A…
  • p. 422 …Brown, of Hill Grove, Naenae, their daughter Alice and her friend Ron Middleton, all saw a…
  • p. 430 …was even above the line of the hills. When he resumed his journey he saw the…
  • p. 431 …motion well above the outline of the hills. It was going in an easterly direction. I…
  • p. 436 …bearing says, a church spire or a hill, we can draw a line on a map…
  • p. 439 …disappeared in a northerly direction over the hills of Khandallah. The object was viewed from the…
  • p. 444 …Sugarloaf hill near Napier DATE: 30/10/52 TIME: approx 9.30pm. A/C.TYPE(s…

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ringing metallic noise, was covered with a greenish-blue phosphorescent light, and was about the size of a Douglas Dakato aircraft.

6. It was travelling at an estimated speed of between 250 and 300 miles an hour as it passed house, and it was not long before the sound disappeared and the machine lost its shape to become a glowing mass of light. Its rate of climb, after it had passed over the suburbs of Mornington and Roslyn, heading towards the peak of Flagstaff, was no greater than the rate of climb for an ordinary aircraft. After twenty minutes the machine disappeared in the distance, emitting a glow very much like a star. As it reached the cloud base and passed into drifting pockets of cloud underneath, the entire formation of clouds was lit with a very bright glow.

7. Visibility was extremely good over the city, and is positive that, although the object he saw was an aircraft of some kind, it was certainly not a type of aircraft well known anywhere in the world. Its climb was smooth, and its passage through the air steady. From its course it appeared to have some over the city from the sea off St. Clair.

8. The same day another Dunedin resident, a resident of Castle Street, reported that the previous morning he had been driving from Invercargill to Dunedin between midnight and 5.25 a.m. Soon after he left Invercargill he noticed a peculiar orange light in the sky, which occasionally turned a brilliant white. Between Waiwera and Balolutha he stopped his car, turned off the lights, and had a good look at the object. It was flying a straight and level course on the seaward side of the Main South Road, and was well above the line of the hills. When he resumed his journey he saw the object several times, still on the same course and still flying straight and level. At no time did hear any noise.

9. The following day (30th October) at about 8 p.m. three Hawera men who were fishing for whitebait at the mouth of the Manawapou River (on the East Coast of the North Island), Mossars. saw an object which

Hawera men who were fishing for whalebait at the mouth of the Manawapou River (on the East Coast of the North Island), Mesars, saw an object which they thought was a star, until they noticed that it was moving upwards and in an easterly direction. They watched it for five minutes until it moved out of sight. Mr. described it as round and reddish. There were four or five antennas—like balls above the main body of the object and these balls were of a shade lighter colour. He said it could not possibly have been a star because of its colour and movement. "It moved in a swinging sort of motion well above the outline of the hills." The round body of the object became elongated with each movement. Its movement could be likened to a top which wobbled as it spun round. As the men watched it would grow in intensity and then fade. Mr. added that he did not believe in flying saucers, and he would not have told anyone about it had not the other two men seen it as well.

10. In the same district a Hawera, was attending to his stock at 3.30 a.m. on Saturday, 15th November, when he saw four bright circular objects in flight. The third object appeared to be much larger than the others. They were flying one behind the other at a height of about 3,000 feet, with about 100 yards between them. Their size "was about that of a Tiger Moth". judged their height by seeing them in line with the Dawson Falls Hostel on Mt. Egmont. They appeared to be flying from the direction of Stratford towards Kaponga and then turned back, "after a wide sweep" to Okaiawa. watched the objects for ten minutes before he lost sight of them.

11. A fresh crop of reports came from the Dunedin district early in November. Shortly after 10.30 p.m. on Sunday 9th November a Ravensbourne resident telephoned the "Otago Daily Times" to say

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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.