UFO

[Ian Warren]

Following up on some research , I found this article

Thirty-four years ago, on January 12, 1965, a DC-3 transport plane took off from Whenuapai, New Zealand for a flight to Kaitaia. As the twin-engined propeller plane flew over Kaipara Harbour, a broad estuary 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Auckland, the pilot, Captain Kirkpatrick, spotted an unusual gleam in the water below -- an unidentified submerged object or USO. "He was about one-third of the way across Kaipara Harbour when he saw what he at first believed to be a stranded gray-white whale in an estuary." "As he veered his DC-3 for a closer look at the object, it became evident to him that he was observing a metallic structure of some sort." Captain Kirkpatrick "noted that the thing was perfectly streamlined and symmetrical in shape... had no external control surfaces or protrusions... appeared metallic with the suggestion of a hatch on top...was resting on the bottom of the estuary and headed toward the south as suggested by the streamlined shape... was harbored in no more than 30 feet of water... was not shaped like a normal submarine but approximately 100 feet in length with a diameter of 15 feet at its widest part." After he filed his flight report, the Royal New Zealand Navy told Captain Kirkpatrick "that it would have been impossible for any known model of submarine to have been in that particular area, due to the configuration of harbour and coastline."

Interesting to follow up on this , of course most noted was SafeAir Argosy heading to Wellington in 1978

The New Zealand UFO / aeroplane Encounter of December, 1978

In the late hours of 30th December 1978, an Argosy freight plane left Wellington, New Zealand - the pilot was Captain Bill Startup, a very experienced flyer and the co-pilot was Bob Guard. The air crew were accompanied by an Australian T.V. unit from Channel 0-10 Network. The purpose of the flight was to try to capture a UFO on film - for some weeks UFOs had been sighted over Cook Strait. When the aircraft was flying over the Pacific Ocean, to the northeast of South Island, the pilots observed a strange object in the sky; they endeavoured to verify their sighting with radar confirmation at Wellington air traffic control. Quentin Fogarty, T.V. reporter, stated that he saw a row of five bright lights which were pulsating and grew from the size of a pinpoint to that of a large balloon. The whole sequence was then repeated, the lights now appearing over the town of Kaikoura, between the aircraft and the ground.



Captain Bill Startup, and images taken during the flight

At this stage, David Crockett, cameraman, was wearing the headphones and was warned by Wellington control that an unknown object was following the Argosy - the pilot immediately turned the plane 360 degrees in order to ascertain what had been behind them. The people aboard the aircraft saw nothing but yet once more Wellington control warned them: "Sierra Alpha Eagle, you have a target in formation with you"¦"¦ target has increased in size". At this, the crew and passengers saw lights outside of the aircraft but were unable to film them because of interference by the plane's navigation lights. When the navigation lights were turned off, however, everyone aboard the aircraft saw a big, bright light which Crockett was able to capture on his "hand-held" camera. In order to do this Crockett had to exchange seats with Bob Guard, causing the resultant filming to suffer from the effects of camera shake. However, he managed to obtain 30 seconds of decent footage.

Startup then turned the plane completely around once more and the object was not visible but Wellington control maintained that its echo was still evident on radar. As the Argosy approached Christchurch, the fuel gauge went haywire but apparently this was not necessarily something unusual and they tuned in on the UFO off Banks Peninsular. Wellington control now had the object on radar while the aircraft landed at Christchurch.

At 2-15a.m. 31st December, the aircraft set off on a return flight and very quickly two strange objects came into view. Crockett observed one of the objects through his camera and described a spinning sphere with lateral lines around it and one of the objects appeared on the aircraft's radar for four minutes. As the aircraft approached the end of its flight, two pulsating lights were observed - one suddenly falling for about 1,000 feet before eventually stopping in a series of jerky movements. The presence of this object was confirmed by Wellington air traffic control

The resultant film taken during these two flights was shown all over the world - the BBC giving it priority on the main evening news programme. Despite the fact that the filmed events were also evident on ground based radar, sceptics were driven to extreme and strange lengths to explain the filmed evidence, including the lights from shrimp boats, top secret U.S. remote controlled planes etc, etc., etc"¦..It should be noted that the Royal New Zealand Air Force was so concerned about the event that Skyhawk jet fighters had been put on full alert in order to intercept the UFOs.

Following the broadcasting of the film by the B.B.C. and the subsequent investigation, the Daily Telegraph (U.K. newspaper - noted for businesslike and scientific observations) remarked: "The scientist who suggested that all (on the aircraft) were seeing Venus on a particularly bright night can be safely consigned to Bedlam (insane asylum)!!

[Jimmy]

Looks like alot of evidence to me, especialy with it being identified on radar, and I'v never heard a thing about it, not of my time of course, but I read the odd book about this sort of thing. What happened afterwards, was there nothing more said? Find this stuff prety interesting.

Thanks
James

[Anthony]

How... interesting. You often hear reports about this sort of thing (or I do anyway, perhaps I spend too much time on the internet (only a couple of hours a day, honest)), but rarely is there so much evidence - sighting confirmed by multiple people, seen on WLG ATC radar, etc.

Like Jimmy/James, it's before my time, but also like Jimmy/James, I'd like to know what happened afterwards.

[SUBS17]

I remember when it happened the RNZAF never scrambled because its something they are supposed to ignore. Anyhow the objects were seen by alot of people in Kaikoura as well as the people in the aircraft. It was quite a big event in NZs history but was quietly forgotten. It wasn't the only TV recording in NZ of a UFO live either. There was another event a few years later that was captured on TV live. Marlbourgh and Kaikoura has seen quite a few UFO sightings including one incident of a landing in a farmers paddock which I think was back in the 60s. In those days there was a US base in Woodbourne and at the time the US guys told the lady who witnessed the event that they new what it was that landed in her back yard a secret which she kept for many years until her final words before she died.

[Charl]

Think there may be some interesting stuff emerging on the UFO front as the Official Secrets Act (Or whatever the US equivalent is) rolls over its 50-year limit.
Late 50's would be particularly interesting, hope we don't learn the CIA was using UAV's to spray the civilian population with hallucinogenic drugs... think this is unlikely? Google "CIA drug experiments" for some insights into '50's paranoia.

[Kelburn]

I hear about the Argosy ones but not the estuary ones.

Well you gotta admit, the universe is large so who can certainly say that we are the only forms of life?

[Q300]

Hmm that was quite a good read.
It convinces me!
Thanks for posting that Ian!

[SUBS17]

QUOTE (Charl @ Feb 2 2008, 08:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Think there may be some interesting stuff emerging on the UFO front as the Official Secrets Act (Or whatever the US equivalent is) rolls over its 50-year limit.
Late 50's would be particularly interesting, hope we don't learn the CIA was using UAV's to spray the civilian population with hallucinogenic drugs... think this is unlikely? Google "CIA drug experiments" for some insights into '50's paranoia.

Some files have been released but its difficult to say if they are genuine or not as for spraying the population I heard Russia did that to a town and it was so bad they had to seal it off. Heres a site which collects those old files:
http://www.majesticdocuments.com/

Theres alot of interesting stuff there but its difficult to tell if they are genuine.

[ardypilot]

Aliens, UFOs and extraterrestrial conspiracies seem to be very popular here don't they!

http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=595
http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4430

QUOTE

I've been watching a series on youtube called 'The Disclosure Project'. It's about 350-400 credible Pilots, Military people and astronauts wanting to testify to congress about UFO's and Aliens etc... Simply because the world deserves to know.
One of the best documented is the Kaikoura one in 1978 or 79 in a Safe Air Argosy.[/quote]
-codge

QUOTE

the Safe Air 'event' WAS a spooky one, I remember it quite well at the time. Even the then primeminister Rob Mulddon saw something on a 737 flight to Wellington.

Conspiracy theories, well, let me tell you a little tale I was told by someone on the spot when another UFO event happened in the 60's, this time at Ohakea. Now, just between you and me, I had a mate who use to control up at Ohakea during the 60's. One day a few years back we were driving to Auckland and as we pased Ohakea he told me all about a night when the base was buzzed by UFO's. Yes dear readers, U F OOOO's.

He told me how late in the evening a number of 'vechicles' travelling at very high speed and low altitude started to buzz Ohakea airbase, what made it interesting was they came in straight, then turned 90 degrees to leave, all at a few 100 mph. The base launched a few Vampires (yes, this was pre skyhawk days) to investigate but it appears the 'vechicles' played with them, buzzing them at high speed. This lasted for an hour or so before they were lost from radar. Naturally this event 'never happened'..[/quote]
-JonARNZ

I have to admit, the topic intrigues me, I once read a short article on a UFO reporting website about the DC3 over Kaipara. It's open to anyone to post on, and i'm sure many of the reports are hoax's, but throughout the years (I think there are reports dating from the 70's) there are multiple reports from far Northland beaches, including a recent photo from last year that made it into the newspapers.. http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxl.html (it's a long page, just CTRL+F "Zealand')

ardypilot

NZFF Pro

 

Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 10:01 am

Posts: 6802

Location: Auckland

Top

[twinstarda42]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jan 28 2008, 09:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Following up on some research , I found this article

Thirty-four years ago, on January 12, 1965, a DC-3 transport plane took off from Whenuapai, New Zealand for a flight to Kaitaia. As the twin-engined propeller plane flew over Kaipara Harbour, a broad estuary 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Auckland, the pilot, Captain Kirkpatrick, spotted an unusual gleam in the water below -- an unidentified submerged object or USO. "He was about one-third of the way across Kaipara Harbour when he saw what he at first believed to be a stranded gray-white whale in an estuary." "As he veered his DC-3 for a closer look at the object, it became evident to him that he was observing a metallic structure of some sort." Captain Kirkpatrick "noted that the thing was perfectly streamlined and symmetrical in shape... had no external control surfaces or protrusions... appeared metallic with the suggestion of a hatch on top...was resting on the bottom of the estuary and headed toward the south as suggested by the streamlined shape... was harbored in no more than 30 feet of water... was not shaped like a normal submarine but approximately 100 feet in length with a diameter of 15 feet at its widest part." After he filed his flight report, the Royal New Zealand Navy told Captain Kirkpatrick "that it would have been impossible for any known model of submarine to have been in that particular area, due to the configuration of harbour and coastline."

Interesting to follow up on this , of course most noted was SafeAir Argosy heading to Wellington in 1978

The New Zealand UFO / aeroplane Encounter of December, 1978

In the late hours of 30th December 1978, an Argosy freight plane left Wellington, New Zealand - the pilot was Captain Bill Startup, a very experienced flyer and the co-pilot was Bob Guard. The air crew were accompanied by an Australian T.V. unit from Channel 0-10 Network. The purpose of the flight was to try to capture a UFO on film - for some weeks UFOs had been sighted over Cook Strait. When the aircraft was flying over the Pacific Ocean, to the northeast of South Island, the pilots observed a strange object in the sky; they endeavoured to verify their sighting with radar confirmation at Wellington air traffic control. Quentin Fogarty, T.V. reporter, stated that he saw a row of five bright lights which were pulsating and grew from the size of a pinpoint to that of a large balloon. The whole sequence was then repeated, the lights now appearing over the town of Kaikoura, between the aircraft and the ground.



Captain Bill Startup, and images taken during the flight

At this stage, David Crockett, cameraman, was wearing the headphones and was warned by Wellington control that an unknown object was following the Argosy - the pilot immediately turned the plane 360 degrees in order to ascertain what had been behind them. The people aboard the aircraft saw nothing but yet once more Wellington control warned them: "Sierra Alpha Eagle, you have a target in formation with you"¦"¦ target has increased in size". At this, the crew and passengers saw lights outside of the aircraft but were unable to film them because of interference by the plane's navigation lights. When the navigation lights were turned off, however, everyone aboard the aircraft saw a big, bright light which Crockett was able to capture on his "hand-held" camera. In order to do this Crockett had to exchange seats with Bob Guard, causing the resultant filming to suffer from the effects of camera shake. However, he managed to obtain 30 seconds of decent footage.

Startup then turned the plane completely around once more and the object was not visible but Wellington control maintained that its echo was still evident on radar. As the Argosy approached Christchurch, the fuel gauge went haywire but apparently this was not necessarily something unusual and they tuned in on the UFO off Banks Peninsular. Wellington control now had the object on radar while the aircraft landed at Christchurch.

At 2-15a.m. 31st December, the aircraft set off on a return flight and very quickly two strange objects came into view. Crockett observed one of the objects through his camera and described a spinning sphere with lateral lines around it and one of the objects appeared on the aircraft's radar for four minutes. As the aircraft approached the end of its flight, two pulsating lights were observed - one suddenly falling for about 1,000 feet before eventually stopping in a series of jerky movements. The presence of this object was confirmed by Wellington air traffic control

The resultant film taken during these two flights was shown all over the world - the BBC giving it priority on the main evening news programme. Despite the fact that the filmed events were also evident on ground based radar, sceptics were driven to extreme and strange lengths to explain the filmed evidence, including the lights from shrimp boats, top secret U.S. remote controlled planes etc, etc., etc"¦..It should be noted that the Royal New Zealand Air Force was so concerned about the event that Skyhawk jet fighters had been put on full alert in order to intercept the UFOs.

Following the broadcasting of the film by the B.B.C. and the subsequent investigation, the Daily Telegraph (U.K. newspaper - noted for businesslike and scientific observations) remarked: "The scientist who suggested that all (on the aircraft) were seeing Venus on a particularly bright night can be safely consigned to Bedlam (insane asylum)!!

Here's a strange one from the Uk:

Police chase UFO over Cardiff
By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 2:35AM BST 20/06/2008
A police helicopter crew gave chase to a UFO after it almost collided with their aircraft near a military base.
The pilot was forced to bank sharply to avoid being hit by the mystery aircraft as the helicopter was returning to the Ministry of Defence base of St Athan, near Cardiff.

The three crew, who described the UFO as 'flying saucer-shaped', then gave chase, getting as far as the North Devon coast before they ran low on fuel, it was reported.

The police aircraft was hovering at 500ft and waiting clearance to land on June 7, when those onboard spotted the other craft hurtling towards them from below.

Article continuesadvertisement
A spokesman for South Wales Police said: "We can confirm the Air Support Unit sighted an unusual aircraft. This was reported to the relevant authorities for their investigation."

It was reported that the aircraft closed in at great speed, aiming straight for the helicopter which swerved sharply.

"They are convinced it was a UFO. It sounds far-fetched, but they know what they saw."

The helicopter crew are said to have crossed the Bristol channel in pursuit of the UFO, but lost sight of it and had to turn back due to a fuel shortage.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...er-Cardiff.html

later News Article Police change initial story:

UFO spotted by police helicopter

A police helicopter crew has spotted what is described as an unusual aircraft in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The helicopter was above St Athan - home to a RAF base and close to Cardiff International Airport - but could not capture any images before the object vanished over the Bristol Channel.

South Wales Police says the helicopter did not give chase and describes the three man crew as very experienced.

The sighting on 7 June has now been reported for investigation.

A South Wales Police spokesperson said: "The crew are very experienced and responded in a professional manner in relation to what they saw.

"In today's skies, there are a wide variety of aircrafts which come in a range of different shapes and sizes and in all probability, this sighting has just confirmed that one of these was in the area at the relevant time," the spokesperson added.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said they had heard nothing about the incident.

"But it is certainly not advisable for police helicopters to go chasing what they think are UFOs," the spokesperson said.

A spokeswoman for Cardiff International Airport said that air traffic control provided a service to the police helicopter to ensure it had appropriate air space, including allowing it space to return to RAF St Athan to refuel.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7465041.stm

[Ian Warren]

To put anything to paper or mention they - , to follow , these peoples trained for Spotting , Criminals and the likes , only to have themself,s looked at and to be openly speak about it ... WOW , can't wait to hear the findings or if any acknowledge for from other source,s .

[SUBS17]

LMAO I didn't know you were an Area 51 member

[Ian Warren]

The truth is out there Call 0800 0051 .................................................. .......or not

[mfraser]

I have no position on the topic but thought I'd link readers to this page, which may provide interesting reading on NZ related UFO's.

UFOCUS New Zealand - NZ's "OFFICIAL" UFO Research Website


You may be interested to learn I work with one of the founders of the website - an Air Traffic Controller that regales just one of many NZ UFO sightings with accurate details, diagrams and witness statements of the event.

I say draw your own conclusions. I'm not closed to the idea but have not seen one myself............... yet!

[SUBS17]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jun 25 2008, 10:41 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The truth is out there Call 0800 0051 .................................................. .......or not

Yes the truth is out there and the worlds best flight sim is in development.