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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
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
F/O Trounce then returned to the cockpit, when at this time the object was just west of our wingtip and still at the same altitude as ourselves. Our Auto-pilot was engaged on the same course of 330 degrees compass as it had been for the last 10 mins since Ohura check point, and this I checked to ensure that I was not turning towards the west and so explain the object's changed position in relation to our course. I could also see the object flying in and out of a few tops as the cloud was now building up as we approached the front. After a further close look and discussion with the co-pilot, I then told him to go back to the cabin and waken Air Commadore Cohen and to get him to have a look at this object and so confirm what we were seeing. As the co-pilot was in the cabin, we entered the front, and knowing that there were no aircraft on the air-route I climbed up to the 9000 where-upon the object was easily picked up below us and ahead. After several more mins observation I obtained our clearance down the 4000 ft and so lost contact upon entering cloud again. During the descent the co-pilot returned to the cockpit and informed me that the Air Commodore stated that it was a planet and took no further interest and went back to sleep. I then went back to the cabin and spoke to Mr. Tuckett and asked if he thought it was a planet, and to this he said no, and that he had not seen anything like that before. He also noticed the object overtaking us and changing its position in relation to us. A Mr. Hume in the seat ahead of him also confirmed all that Tuckett, Trounce and myself had seen. I then approached the Air Commodore and asked his opinion, to which he remarked that it was a planet low down on the horizon, but he made no further comment when I said that it had definitely passed us at 8000 ft. Upon arrival at Whenuapai, I notified the officer on duty at Whenuapai, and as far as I was concerned there the matter rested. ## Points of interest concerning the object: It was a small bright light then increasing to brilliant in a cycle of 3 seconds, but this change of intensity did not appear to be constant during the whole observation. It changed colour from white-yellow-orange(gold) to red. It did not appear as a soft reflected light. It travelled from west of Waitara to a position approx west of Waikato river mouth during the same time as we travelled from approx 3 mls south of Albatross point to just North of Raglan reporting point. It maintained a steady altitude and overtaking speed. The light appeared to be revolving such as a beacon on the top of the Whemuapai Control Tower, at a distance of 10 miles.
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.