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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.
“Sea”47 pages
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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