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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…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

29. Several conflicting reports came from Nelson. and her two daughters, at Mapua, reported a strange, lighted object in the sky at 10 p.m. They described it as a white cigar shaped object, flat along the bottom and curved at the top. At 10.15 p.m. saw an object with revolving lights. There were four or five red lights revolving from left to right. The whole thing was covered with a yellow glow and was circular in shape. There was no none. about 10.25 p.m. saw a yellowish white light in the sky. It grew bright then almost faded away. It seemed to be moving slowly, almost hovering.

30. In the meantime the blue disc appears to have gone directly south. was travelling with his son from Christchurch to Wellington on the Saturday night when they saw, at a late hour, a "wee green light" underneath a "blue-looking round object" which moved too fast to be an aeroplane. As the ferry leaves Christchurch about 8 p.m. this would have been about 50 miles to the north of Christchurch.

31. A blue disc was also sighted at Christchurch, Kysburn (near Patearoa) Palmerston, and Waipahi. These reports all said that it was a blue disc, that if flew south at a high speed and that it hissed.

32. The report from Kyeburn told of a disc-like object travelling very fast, much faster than an aeroplane. It was travelling south in the sky, over towards Palmerston, a few minutes after 11 p.m. It was a long way away and seemed only a little larger than a large star. A resident of Palmerston saw a blue disc travelling very fast in a southerly direction about 11.8 p.m. It took only a few seconds to pass over and was followed by a bissing sound. It apparently then passed inland to the west of Dunedin.

33. Four people living at Waipahi were returning from Gore at 11.16 p.m. when the driver of the car noticed a blue light, low down in the sky, climbing towards him. He stopped the car and all four alighted to watch. The light appeared to be a blue disc about the size of an orange held at arm's length. It was travelling at a high speed in a southerly direction and passed directly overhead. About three seconds later a faint hissing sound was heard. It remained in sight for a little over three minutes.

It seems then to have returned to the north as a brilliant blue object was seen over the Port Hills at Christchurch at 11.45 p.m. A sighting was then made at Palmerston North at 12.45 a.m., but it is not clear whether this was the green or the blue object, or both.

35. A final sighting took place immediately to the north of Wellington. About 1 a.m. on 8th December

Nasnae, their daughter and her friend, all saw a bright circular object describing a slow circular route about 2,000 feet above Woburn. It was travelling very slowly, and made only two or three circuits during the hour that the matched it. At the bottom of its more or less circular route

slowly, and made only two or three circuits during the hour time the watched it. At the bottom of its more or less circular route the object had an array of sparks round its edges. As it travelled around clockwise, the sparks disappeared and a small red tail light appeared instead. As it began its downward journey the tail disappeared gradually and the object itself diminished in size until it was hardly visible. When it reached the lowest part of the circular route the sparks appeared again and the process was repeated. After seeing the object making its leisurely couple of circles they all went indoors. Checks failed to produce any logical explanation for these phenomena. A meteorological balloon was released at 10.45 p.m. but it would have burst long before 1 a.m. The Carter Observatory, Wellington, did not know of any meteorites, fireballs or other curiosities in the area at that time.

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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.