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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.
“Anderson”4 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
42. Some other conclusions may be drawn with respect to these unannounced visitations. In almost every instance they appear at night. They apparently have sufficient speed to make interception difficult, but do not fly above the speed of sound. At the same time they seem to be able to travel at comparatively low speeds and to travel for distances hitherto unknown, unless operating from water-borne craft. The design does not conform to those ordinarily adopted for aircraft. It is difficult to understand why they should wish to visit New Zealand at night unless to make identification and interception difficult. Some of the reports suggest that night-photography was taking place, particularly to the south of Dunedin, where the major Air Force Station in the southern half of the South Island of New Zealand is situated, and possibly also at Nelson, the major port on the northwest of the South Island. The Taeiri district would be an obvious place for a sea-borne landing. 43. In general the descriptions and behaviour of the objects reported do not suggest anything extra-terrestrial, or machines which could not be built and powered by methods already known to science. The possibility of mass hypnotism is to some extent discounted by the careful wording of many of the reports received. The whole business in fact suggests an aerial reconnaissance of New Zealand. 44. This is to some extent confirmed by a verbal report made to me by the Director of the Dominion Museum, Dr. R. A. Falla, to the effect that some residents of Okarita an isolated settlement on the West Coast of the South Island that they had a day or two earlier seen an unusual machine, description of which is not available, moving slowly along the coast and descending as though it were to alight on the water. The headland however prevented them seeing whether it di in fact do so. 45. A list of some additional sightings reported in the press between 1st September and 15th November, 1952, and a map of New Zealand are attached.
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.