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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.
“Open Minds”13 pages
AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND. PRESS OUTTING: From: "Knitting Co. Wellington, N.Z. Date: 15. # SAUCERERS NOTE WATCHED by pupils, a flying saucer landed on the football field of Greytown District High School. There was no panic, and no little men stepped out of it. It was a disc-made of wood and covered with aluminium foil-about a yard in diameter. The remains of a balloon were still attached to it. A science master who had served on meteorological stations at Campbell Island and Auckland Island said it was used by meteorological stations to show the direction of the wind. He was unfamiliar with the pattern, and thought it might have come from Australia. The Wellington Meteorological Office said it was a radar target, and came either from Kelburn or Ohakea, where such discs were released four times a day to be carried by a balloon into the upper atmosphere. A balloon could not be tracked by radar, hence the foil-covered disc. With it, the progress of the balloon could be followed much further and through clouds impossible without radar. They have been used in New Zealand since 1942. Flying saucer sighters must take them into consideration with meteors, stars, planes, ordinary meteorological balloons, and suchlike traps for the unwary when preparing a report that they have been a flying saucer. Secretary Department of External Affairs.
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