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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.
“Rome”7 pages
# SCHOOLBOYS SEND "FLYING SAUCERS" OVER HAMILTON HAMILTON, November 27 (P.A.).-Three "flying saucers" seen over Hamilton yesterday have been satisfactorily explained. They were nothing more sinister than balloons of hydrogen. Their source was not Mars but a corner of the Hamilton High School grounds, and the beings who controlled them were not Martians in space suits and "glass bubble" headgear, but a group of Hamilton schoolboys clad in grey shorts, shirts and red caps of the Hamilton High School. In view of the explanation which has been given, yesterday's "flying saucer" report has become unusual for it is probably the first time a reported sighting of a "flying saucer" has been adequately and authoritatively explained. When the high school pupils engaged on hydrogen gas experiments had finished their work yesterday they filled three balloons with gas, coupled them together and released them, blissfully unaware of the mild furore their act was to cause among other pupils at the school and to residents in the city and suburbs. An observer who came nearest to the true explanation is Mr. L. Jones, of Fairfield, who described what he saw in a letter written before the explanation was given. He said the three objects "appeared to be joined together. They were round and blackish silver and were floating along very slowly. The main opinion of those who saw them was that they were weather balloons."
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