Kaikōura Lights

Late December 1978. The northeast coast of New Zealand's South Island, where the Kaikōura ranges meet the sea. Safe Air Ltd flew Argosy freighters through the night out of Blenheim. Over two nights, pilots, air traffic controllers and a television crew reported lights they could not explain.

20 December, about 23:55. At RNZAF Woodbourne, Warrant Officer Ian Uffindell saw unusual lights about 4.5 miles from the airfield. Flight Services Officer Bill Frame phoned Wellington. Controller John Cordy had three unidentified targets on screen. Through binoculars, the two men watched a "large white light, with smaller white lights, one on either side."

Hours later, at 03:14, Captain Vern Powell and First Officer Ian Pirie left Blenheim. An object moved in from the east. Then it began tracking parallel to the aircraft, some 2000 to 3000 feet above. The pilots saw a "massive bright light hanging in the sky…sometimes red/orange, sometimes white." On radar it crossed 15 miles in 5 to 7 seconds. Pirie put it this way: "here was this light, but so close it was almost frightening."

30 December. A crew organised by Melbourne's Channel 0 flew the same route to shoot background film. Reporter Quentin Fogarty and cameraman David Crockett joined Captain Bill Startup and First Officer Bob Guard. On the way south, the pilots saw lights again.

At 02:16 on 31 December they left Christchurch for Blenheim. At about 2,000 feet the crew saw "a line of five small bright lights and what appeared to be a large lighted orb." The aircraft's radar showed a target about 18 nautical miles away in the same direction. The light seemed to travel with the plane. When they turned toward it, it moved away. Fogarty spoke to camera. "It's really getting a bit frightening here, there's a whole formation of unidentified flying objects." Then: "Let's hope they're friendly."

The RNZAF, NZ Police, Carter Observatory and the DSIR all examined the case. Wing Commander J. B. Clements wrote that the crew's observation was "consistent with an unusual view of Venus." In January 1979 the DSIR told the United Nations: "The objects remain classified as UFOs until identified. Prospect of extra terrestrial intervention being proved is regarded as extremely remote." The RNZAF file was declassified in December 2010. A CIA memo called the case "unique among civilian UFO reports."

Officials also pointed to squid boats, cars, trains and spurious radar returns. The DSIR said it reproduced effects in Crockett's film by shining a torch onto the plane's window. The pilots were unmoved. "We know what Venus looks like, this was not Venus."

Bruce Maccabee, an optical physicist at the US Naval Surface Weapons Center, spent about a month in New Zealand. He judged the object "extremely bright and about 20 metres (66 ft) or more in diameter." His verdict: "unknown objects or phenomena fitting the definition of UFOs." The argument ran on in the pages of Applied Optics.

The film led Melbourne's prime-time news and was shown around the world. Books, a BBC Horizon documentary and anniversary coverage followed. Fogarty was accused of a hoax, though none was ever shown. "That cut deep." Startup's answer was simple. "People can think what they want but they were not in the aircraft."