The Father Gill Sightings at Boianai

Rev. William Booth Gill ran the Anglican mission at Boianai, on Goodenough Bay in the Territory of Papua. J. Allen Hynek later called him "a painstaking, methodical, and unexcitable person." He was a sceptic. On 25 June 1959 he wrote that "my simple mind still requires scientific evidence." Yet strange things had been reported nearby. On 21 June, teacher Stephen Gill Moi had seen an "inverted saucer."

Friday, 26 June 1959. About 6:45 in the evening. A light appeared to be approaching the mission. It settled about 100 metres up, as big as five full moons lined up end to end. Solid and circular, with a wide base and a narrower upper deck. Four "legs" underneath. Panels or portholes along the side, glowing a little brighter than the rest. At intervals a shaft of blue light shone upwards at about 45 degrees. No sound was ever emitted.

Then figures appeared on the deck. Gill logged it at 6:55: "One object on top, move, man? Now 3 men, moving, glowing, doing something on deck. Gone." Four "men" in all. They looked perfectly human. Two bent over and raised their arms, as though setting something up. Smaller objects came and went. Activity lasted until about 10:50, when cloud closed in. The next day Gill wrote: "there is no doubt whatsoever that they are handled by beings of some kind."

Saturday, 27 June. Just after 6 pm, it returned. Figures stood on the deck again. Gill stretched his arm above his head and waved. "To our surprise the figure did the same." Ananias Rarata waved both arms. Two figures did the same. Long torch flashes followed, and the object answered with wavering motions back and forth. "There seemed no doubt that our movements were answered." For perhaps half a minute it seemed to grow bigger, as if approaching. Then it came no further. Gill went in to dinner.

Twenty-five witnesses signed a written account, among them five Papuan teachers and three medical assistants. Gill's superior, Rev. Norman E. G. Cruttwell, compiled a report titled Flying Saucers Over Papua. The Minister for Air was questioned in the House of Representatives. The RAAF interviewed Gill on 29 December 1959. Squadron Leader F. A. Lang judged him reliable, but suggested "natural phenomena coloured by past events and subconscious influences of UFO enthusiasts," with some lights being Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

In 1973, six witnesses were re-interviewed for Hynek. He allowed that the lesser lights might be planets or stars. But the main object's size, and its near-stationary presence for about three hours, ruled out an astronomical body.

Harvard astronomer Donald H. Menzel proposed Venus, seen by a short-sighted Gill without his glasses. Gill answered that he always put his glasses on to see at a distance, and that he had seen Venus separately. Steuart Campbell suggested planetary mirages. Philip J. Klass suggested fabrication. Martin Kottmeyer proposed a brilliantly lit squid-fishing boat, its crew the figures. David J. Halperin saw bright stars through shifting cloud, transformed into a shared religious vision. "If that's what they were looking at, it's not what they saw."

Gill never recanted. No object has ever been positively identified. Randolph Stow's novel Visitants refers to the events, and Gill appears in archive footage in The Phenomenon. In his last lecture, in 2003, he shared a private theory. The figures, he thought, were angels.