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NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

NZDF / RNZAF via Internet Archive · 2010-12 · 445 pages · text by OCR

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.

  • p. 12 …He jettisoned his long-range tanks and did diving turns out to sea. He flattened out…
  • p. 19 …He then did diving turns out to sea and flattened out at 4000ft, heading north-north…
  • p. 41 …From the above data, Venus would set for an observer at sea level, at 8.25…
  • p. 46 …when it disappeared on the horizon at sea level. As the red colour was brighter than…
  • p. 77 …sea level with no refraction, Z.D. = $ 9 0^{\circ} 0 0^{\prime} $ (b) At sea…
  • p. 94 …Screen for SEA '
  • p. 100 …table for the following factors:- (a) At sea level with no refraction, $ \mathbf{Z}.\mathbf{D…
  • p. 104 …THEY SAW LIGHT WELL OUT TO SEA. AT FIRST IT APPEARED LIKE A STAR AND THEN…
  • p. 107 …table for the following factors:- (a) At sea level with no refraction, $ \mathrm{Z.D.}=9…
  • p. 130 …world's land masses and the seven seas have been THERE is scope for intriguing contemplation…
  • p. 150 …Azimuth 246 $ ^{\circ} $ T, Altitude -0.39 at sea level. Mr. I.L. Thomsen,Director of…
  • p. 170 …An excellent little printed UFO magazine.) # A VETERAN SEA CAPTAIN REPORTS ## "I SIGHTED A FLYING SAUCER…
  • p. 171 …At that time the ship was 50 sea-miles east of Ambrose lightship, the spot where…
  • p. 182 …Mountbatten is one of the subscribers. (First Sea Lord). No news for a long time from…
  • p. 189 # Strange Object Seen Hovering Over Sea By Two Dunedin Men Two Dunedin men may have been…
  • p. 192 …a subsequent report from a ship at sea in the same vicinity. This described what was…
  • p. 202 …They buzzed Bloomington, Indiana on September 7, 1877, ships in the Yellow Sea in 1893, and…
  • p. 203 …to exist at the bottom of the sea. The Uranides, I think, have been examining the…
  • p. 212 …The pilot said after landing that the two objects were much faster than his Sea Fury…
  • p. 215 …And had been flicked up by a sea gull and then drifted. It made no sound…
  • p. 217 …Our observer does not believe these government men tossed the object in the sea, and nor…
  • p. 218 …Our observer does not believe these government men tossed object in the sea, and nor do…
  • p. 242 …Due west of Whenuapai takes you out to sea off the Muruwai coast-line. ## May 24th…
  • p. 243 …smoothly in an easterly direction out to sea. This report was made to Mr Metcalf, President…
  • p. 244 …hovering, shortly, it darted off at high speed out to sea and then as suddenly returned…
  • p. 251 …watched a strange moving light out to sea off the coast of Muruwai Beach. The light…
  • p. 262 …The shaded area in the diagram shows pieces of the Comet airliner recovered from the sea…
  • p. 265 …northwards, high in the sky above the sea. "The movement of the object seemed similar to…
  • p. 266 …The object, which he took to be a meteor, lit up the sea for a considerable…
  • p. 267 …hills, must have been out over the sea. He added that the Wadestown man who had…
  • p. 295 …Supply at sea it was reported at 6.10 p.m. on February 28, 1904, that…
  • p. 307 …sound of its striking the earth or sea was heard, -- a loud and lengthened noise, to…
  • p. 314 …his 1931 solo crossing of the Tasman Sea from Auckland to Sydney via Norfolk and Lord…
  • p. 315 …under the title " Alone over the Tasman Sea "starting on page 299 line 11. Please let…
  • p. 331 …It could not have been a plane, as the wind was blowing in off the sea…
  • p. 336 …engine-driver noticed a light out to sea. It was moving up and down and advancing…
  • p. 366 …about 20 feet above the sea, parallel with the Llandovery Castle, and travelling in the same…
  • p. 368 …Schofield, aboard a navy supply vessel at sea. Shortly after six o'clock on the morning…
  • p. 391 …It was well out at sea opposite Whenuapai immediately to the north of Auckland, and soon…
  • p. 392 …From its course it appeared to have some over the city from the sea off St…
  • p. 393 …moving across the sky towards the open sea. They changed colour from red to green while…
  • p. 399 …The Taeiri district would be an obvious place for a sea-borne landing. 43. In general…
  • p. 407 # RUSSIAN SUBMARINES IN NORTH SEA MANOEUVRES New Zealand Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, January 5 (Rec. 7…
  • p. 412 …Hovered Nil Descended and moved out to sea New Brighton 29.10.52 9 pm One…
  • p. 430 …The lights, he said, appeared to be moving across the sky towards the open sea. They…
  • p. 433 …The object was well out at sea, opposite Whenuapai, and soon disappeared silently. A man and…
  • p. 436 …The object was well out at sea, opposite Whenuapai, and soon, disappeared silently. A man and…
Just after 8.30 p.m. on 16th October 1952 I was outside my fré door (upper part of Messines Road, Karori, Wellington) facing East, admiring the clear sky and stars, when I saw what for a moment I took for a meteor. My next reaction was that this was a very large meteor about to land uncommonly close. Then, "no, it is not a meteor, it is a flying saucer". The object was flying from East to West, at a guess about mid-way between Eastbourne and the Heads. It went very fast, some three, four or five (?) times as fast as a fast plane. Its appearance was like the reflection of a searchlight on the bottom of a cloud, but its course, from my angle, took it well clear of the two or three small clouds in the sky, which lay to the South of its course. It became obscured by some small trees, and I rushed forward to try to follow its course to the West, but I could not see it again. It did not seem to be travelling at a very great height, perhaps 10,000 feet, but this was very difficult to judge, as was its size. There was no sign of searchlight activity, or a searchlight cone. A "saucer" seemed to be quite a good description of the object.

I went indoors, and said to my wife "guess what I have seen". "A flying saucer" she replied. "Yes". "Why didn't you call me?" "It went far too quickly". ('There was a cartoon in the Evening Post depicting various flying kitchen utensils). My strongest drink had been milk. Having had this experience, I think I should report it, at any rate within my Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

47. 258 Ex 716 FILE. 43 OCT 1952

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.