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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.
“Headquarters”37 pages
Memorandum: My daughter and I went in my car to the mouth of the Mokau River at about 8p.m. where a number of residents and visitors had a bonfire for children. It was then quite dark and was not raining. At 8.15p.m. there being a cold westerly wind, we turned from the bonfire to return to our car and my daughter pointed to what she described as a "very bright star" just under the cloud bank which was in army parlance, two fingers above the horizon. No other "stars" were visible anywhere, the sky being clouded except on the western horizon. This "star" was of a yellowish colour and well above the horizon near the rim of the cloud bank. A local resident who was standing beside us said "that's the evening star" - I thought it was the planet Venus. The "star" then moved rapidly south dropping lower as it moved in the direction of the lights of New Plymouth. I observed its movement by taking a line on a log in front of us. It again became stationary at a lower level and appeared to circle several times at about sea level, changing colour from yellow to red. We watched its movements from 8.15 to 8.30p.m. when it disappeared on the horizon at sea level. As the red colour was brighter than but similar to the port light of fishing trawlers which at times pass down the coast off Mokau, we drove up to my seaside bach which is quite close but some 80 feet higher than beach level to check whether the red light was from a vessel. No light or "planet" was visible from the higher elevation, although a watch was kept until 10p.m. Although I was certain that the light was not from a vessel as it was at too great a distance and its elevation was well up above the horizon, I wanted to rule out any possibility of light refraction or optical illusion. It is clear that the object seen, first yellowish and turning to bright red, was the one object, as it changed colour and position. It was about south of a line running west from the mouth of the Mokau River and was, I estimate, 20 miles north of the lights of New Plymouth. It was watched by those on the beach, among them of Mokau who would know the names of the other Mokau residents there at the time if it was desired to corroborate what we observed.
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