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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.
“Headquarters”37 pages
36. When he heard of these reports commented: "You can't possibly ignore three straightforward, intelligently written reports like these. I can't give any explanation off-hand." The Director of the Carter Observatory, Mr. I. L. Thomsen, who is an authority on the behaviour of Aurorae said: "That looks to be quite worthwhile information. You have got times and you have got something that might give speeds. I am quite a little sceptical about this sort of thing but one has to have an open mind. The trouble with these reports from all over the world is that there is no accurate data that any scientific person can get his teeth into, and that is why, I think, scientific people are remaining very quiet about them. It would be interesting if those who want to report on flying saucers would try to notice the correct time, give altitude, direction, and reference to landmarks. Then if anybody wanted to look into the reports they would have something to go on. If we got enough such reports we could correlate them." 37. After they had analysed the reports and another astronomer, made the following joint statement: 'Assumin. that the reports of a swift-moving object in the sky on Saturday night are not the result of collaboration (and they appear to be genuine, independent observations) then they constitute a surprising weight of evidence in favour of the supposition that some object of a bluish colour did pass down the South Island at about 11 o'clock that night. The times of the Nelson sightings fit in well with the assumption that the object travelled from there southwards to be observed successively from the ferry steamer, from Christchurch, from Kysburn and finally from Waipahi. It would be interesting to know if anything unusual was seen from Oamaru which appears to be on the route. Most detail has been given by the four observers at Mipahi. Their estimate of a sound lag of three seconds and apparent size of an orange at arm's length would indicate an object about the size of a ship (over 300 feet) at a height of 3000 to 4000 feet. The object may well have been smaller as there is a common tendency to over-estimate the angle subtended by an object seen in the sky. The Christchurch observers given an apparent size of half a crown indicating a height of 6000 to 7000 feet there If the object passed about twenty miles east of the Kyebun observer, it would appear about one-third the apparent diameter of the moon, which is not greatly at variance with his account. Regarding speed, the times given by the observers could indicate 400 to 600 miles an hour between Nelson and Wipshi. The times of the three intervening sightings fit in reasonably well with this assumption." 38. As soon as this was published three Oamaru residents wrote to the Otago Daily Times saying that they and at least two other people had stated publicly that they had seen the taucer" exactly as described in the reports.
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