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NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

NZDF / RNZAF via Internet Archive · 2010-12 · 445 pages · text by GLM-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. 14 …a "Aying saucer" over the Hawock North Hills is claimed to have been obtained by Mr…
  • p. 15 …to be coming slowly down towards the hills. It bore the appearance, she said, of a…
  • p. 20 …They first noticed the light high above the hills behind Bay View. It hovered there for…
  • p. 21 …To-night it will set shortly before 9 o'clock, though, with hills to the west…
  • p. 28 …very powerful one, flashing on the Patterang hill, about a mile distant. First it kept pointing…
  • p. 61 …step they shall be Sahin Discover the Hills will. Often and thing will be set free…
  • p. 72 …On reaching the brow of a hill he saw a brightly lit object coming toward him…
  • p. 94 …the following from the top of Kinbarni Hill : at 3: 32 p.m. shortly after a…
  • p. 125 …large star low down over the Wellington hills drew the attention of a prominent Auckland business…
  • p. 130 …climbed a hill in Lancashire to photograph birds. They set their camera to infinity and directed…
  • p. 132 …Both then disappeared slowly behind the outline of the hill. 北川羌族自治县
  • p. 175 …CLOSE-UP OF THE GREAT GALLOWAY HILLS MYSTERY - WHAT CAN THIS THING BE? This is reported…
  • p. 188 …On February 15 this year two schoolboys were reported to have climbed a hill in Lancashire…
  • p. 189 …Stewart, a farmer, of Saddle Hill, one of the men who saw the fire ball (or…
  • p. 212 # SCIENTIST EXPLAINS STRANGE SKY SIGHTS On top of Kelburn hill two silver observatory domes gleam in…
  • p. 225 The objects that landed were not Meteorites, because they travelled horizontally, manoeuvred around hills, stopped in…
  • p. 233 …This club formed by students of a Primary School, One Tree Hill. Master Kelvin Barton advised…
  • p. 249 …see a bright star, slightly above the hill behind Whakarewarewa, suddenly, "take off" on a circuit…
  • p. 251 …to see the object disappear over a hill in a manner that suggested to him, would…
  • p. 256 …He was on top of the hill in Commons Street, Oneraht, when the sun had just…
  • p. 257 …and at the time was on a hill overlooking the countryside. He was looking toward where…
  • p. 258 …over the penisula and disappeared over Saddle Hill. A boy said it looked like a football…
  • p. 267 …It was a big fireball and, though it seemed to be over the Karori hills, must…
  • p. 278 …Three policemen plodded solemnly into the hills accompanied by the sisters and surveyed the scene of…
  • p. 312 …as far a part as Hamilton East, Hill-croft Whitiora, and Maeroa and which occured right…
  • p. 320 …This corresponds with the rotation of a parabolic antenna located on a nearby hill. As the…
  • p. 327 …vapor, flashing across the sky over Box Hill at 2.30p.m. I saw what appeared…
  • p. 335 …Scoffers were con- founded, however, by the unusual story of a settler at Kauroo Hill. It…
  • p. 336 …time the airship had disappeared over a hill. The object was also seen at Mahono. The…
  • p. 363 …a south-East direction near the Adelaide hills. In the meantime I called my wife who…
  • p. 368 …Southwest had seen flash across the bare hills in straight, silent, horizontal flight, Unger recalled a…
  • p. 379 …191953 A group of people at surrey hills yesterday reported seeing a four minute display by…
  • p. 392 …was well above the line of the hills. When he resumed his journey he saw the…
  • p. 393 …The main light, however, seemed to hover over the Hokonui Hills. For some time it swung…
  • p. 396 …blue object was seen over the Port Hills at Christchurch at 11.45 p.m. A…
  • p. 422 …Brown, of Hill Grove, Naenae, their daughter Alice and her friend Ron Middleton, all saw a…
  • p. 430 …was even above the line of the hills. When he resumed his journey he saw the…
  • p. 431 …motion well above the outline of the hills. It was going in an easterly direction. I…
  • p. 436 …bearing says, a church spire or a hill, we can draw a line on a map…
  • p. 439 …disappeared in a northerly direction over the hills of Khandallah. The object was viewed from the…
  • p. 444 …Sugarloaf hill near Napier DATE: 30/10/52 TIME: approx 9.30pm. A/C.TYPE(s…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

116 St. Johns Road, Remuera, AUCKIAND.

11th November, 1955.

Squadron Leader Golding, Air Department, WELLINGTON.

Dear Sir,

Since our last conversation I have read in the newspapers a statement from the R.N.Z.A.F. Authorities, that they consider the bright light may be the planet Venus, but that they cannot understand its change of position because I stated that we did not alter course.

To me, this appears to be now, that my ability as a pilot, and also my reputation, is being questioned. I did not wish to be involved in this inquiry; I saw a bright object; it passed my aircraft and I hotified A.T. Control, and as far as I was concerned that was the end of the matter. After watching this object, and after having read reports from overseas, the answer appeared quite simple. As you are no doubt well aware, there are hundreds, and I do not think that is an exaggeration, of similar reports by airline, military and private pilots, and as I see it this is just another report of a sighting.

I have been an airline pilot for ten years, eight of which are as captain, and have over 7,000 hours to my credit, and if the R.N.Z.A.F. authorities can believe that I could in moonlight conditions, in full contact with the ground, allow an aircraft on the auto-pilot to turn towards the West by $ 6 0^{\circ}-7 0^{\circ} $ to enable Venus to alter its position in relation to our course, then having realised this, and therefore alter back $ 6 0^{\circ}-7 0^{\circ} $ to regain my track, and still report the incident to A.T.C. upon arrival, then obviously I am a most incompetent pilot, plus a prize idiot for my behaviour.

Points that I wish to confirm, and as far as I am concerned are accurate, are :

We maintained a steady course on the auto-pilot of 330

ILE

f 330

altitude as

That the object passed our aircraft, at the same altitude as ourselves.

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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.