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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.
“US Navy”5 pages
On the night of November 5th a party on the beach in the vicinity from which Captain Rainbow made his observation, reported a similar phenomenon. In this case the party being on the ground was able to report fairly accurately the direction of movement of the brilliant object. This conformed with the calculated movement of Venus which appears to move sharply from North to South as it approaches the horizon. This would seem to substantiate that the atmospheric conditions were such that Venus appeared spectacular at the time and in the general direction in which the Pilot made his observation. If the object he saw were not Venus then it is difficult to understand how he could have failed to observe that planet at the same time. The only explanation offered for the apparent movement observed by him is that sufficient of his passengers moved to the port side of the aircraft to observe the phenomenon to cause the aircraft to yaw in that direction.
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