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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.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
NEW PLYMOUTH. Dear I was very interested to read your letter. Venus was observed to be particularly bright and was in the approximate position you describe at the time, but the fact that you and a number of other witnesses are certain that it moved substantially, and incidentally in a direction different from that in which it was observed by Captain Rainbow to move, is most interesting. I had a brief discussion with the Director of Meteorological Services and he is unaware of any previous reported optical phenomenon of this type and magnitude. I have passed your letter with the information it contained to the Department for investigation, and I expect that in due course someone will be asking you for further details. Yours sincerely, The latter under resky was fortunate to see Cartier or 9 nor for the investigation ( report ) (T.P. SHAND) The Air Secretary, I.L. Thomson Esq. Director of WELLINGTON. Carter Observatory. Referred. 10.11.55 Referred.
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.