"Flying Light" Next To NAC DC-3 In 1955

[Dave Homewood]

“FLYING LIGHT,” NEAR PLANE

Report By National Airways Pilot

“DEFINITELY NOT COMET OR METEOR”

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 31.

A bright “flying light” travelled alongside a National Airways Corporation DC-3 plane for about five minutes tonight. It was seen by the pilot, co-pilot, and several of the passengers. Both were flying at an altitude of 8000 ft.

The aircraft was on flight 108, the last passenger plane from Wellington to Auckland. It was piloted by Captain W. T. Rainbow, and the co-pilot was First Officer S. G. Trounce. Captain Rainbow described it as an eerie experience. “It was definitely not a comet or a meteor,” he said. “We see them often on night flights.”

“The light was first seen well behind the aircraft. It was travelling along the coast on a parallel course, and gradually overtook the aircraft, flew alongside but some 15 miles distant for a short period, and then disappeared ahead. In the five minutes it was in view, it travelled from Waitara to the Waikato river mouth, a distance of about 72 air miles. It must have been travelling about 850 miles an hour.

“It was just above a layer of cloud, and we could see it travelling against the white mass,” said Captain Rainbow. “The night was clear, and visibility was excellent.” The light was fluctuating in intensity and changing from red through yellow and orange. At first the crew thought it was another aircraft, but a call to flying control in Wellington confirmed that there were no aircraft in the area.

A former pilot who was a passenger said he watched the object for a considerable time in company with another passenger. It travelled from well behind the plane to well in front.

“I have never seen anything like it before,” he said, “and I wouldn’t like to guess what it was.” When the aircraft was approaching Hamilton, it ran into a cloud front. For a few minutes the passengers and crew saw the light disappearing in and out of the cloud banks. After a short time they lost sight of it for good.

PRESS, 1 NOVEMBER 1955

[Dave Homewood]

STRANGE OBJECT IN SKY

Government Orders Full Inquiry

AIR FORCE HELP REQUESTED

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, November 3.

“Fullest and immediate” investigations have been ordered by the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation (Mr T. P. Shand), into the sighting of a mysterious lighted object by the crew of a National Airways Corporation plane last Monday night. The Acting-Minister of Defence (Mr E. H. Halstead) this morning asked the Chief of the Air Staff (Air Vice-Marshal W. H. Merton) for the fullest co-operation of the Air Force in the inquiry. It is understood that the National Airways Corporation will ask the pilot of the plane concerned (Captain W. T. Rainbow) to come to Wellington to make a report on the sighting of the object, and it is reliably reported that he will be interrogated by Air Force security officers.

Among those in the plane who saw the object was the Inspector-General of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (Air Commodore R. J. Cohen). The plane was on Flight 108, the last flight on Monday night between Wellington and Auckland.

“I have called for an immediate, full report,” said Mr Shand this morning. “This is the most circumstantial and apparently reliable report on such an object that we have yet had. and I am especially interested because of the character of the witnesses, whose reputation cannot be questioned.

“There have been other previous reports of similar objects in the New Zealand skies, but the causes have been dismissed as fireballs or other natural phenomena. On the evidence available, it appears that this object does not come into that category.”

Planet Theory
Interviewed by telephone this afternoon, Air Commodore Cohen, who is at present visiting the Hobsonville air station, said he thought the object sighted from the plane was a planet, low down on the horizon. “I cannot identify it, but have ordered the navigating people here to investigate. They are checking on it now,” he said. “The object did appear to move,” Air Commodore Cohen said, “but planets do appear to move quite fast when they are low on the horizon. I saw it over a period of about 10 minutes from 8.15 pm., but really didn’t give it a second thought. It changed colour through a wide range of shades, but then planets do that in that position.

“A number of passengers discussed the object, and wondered what it could be. Captain Rainbow asked me what I thought it was, but he did not offer any theory then. He saw the thing for a much longer period than I did.

“I was not a bit concerned about it at the time, but a number of people have asked me about it since, so I am having my theory checked.” Asked to comment on Captain Rainbow’s statement that the object was only 15 miles distant. Air Commodore Cohen said it was very difficult to judge distances at night. He had himself seen similar things on previous night flights.

Civil Pilot’s Opinion
After he landed a National Airways plane at Kaitaia this afternoon Captain Rainbow said in a telephone interview, “There is no doubt in my mind that it was not a planet or a comet or a meteor, although at first I thought it was a planet

“We first saw it astern, and I put the plane on the automatic pilot, steering a steady course. In about four or five minutes, the object had overtaken the plane, and was slightly ahead of it. I have never seen a planet move like that.

“My co-pilot (First Officer S. G. Trounce) couldn’t make anything of it, either, although we kept it under observation for quite a while. The funny thing about it was that the light brightened and then dimmed regularly about every three seconds.

“It is easy enough to say it was a planet, but we saw it moving in and out of the top of a layer of stratus cloud,” said Captain Rainbow. “I whistled the plane up to 9000 feet, and the object climbed with us.

“I have read one or two books about these things,” Captain Rainbow said, “and our experience tallied with descriptions I have read of similar objects sighted by pilots in overseas countries.”


PRESS, 4 NOVEMBER 1955

[johnnyfalcon]

Shades of the Kaikoura lights seen by the Argosy crew

[Dave Homewood]

Exactly.

[planewriting]

Although this is slightly off topic I am reminded of an amusing incident that happened to me years ago (late 1970s?). I was flying from Auckland to Wellington to attend an AHSNZ meeting, I think with Camtech. Whoever it was, they handed me the latest AHSNZ Journal in which there was an article about the ditching of C-47 NZ3549 in the Waitemata. The commander was S Trounce. My reading of it was interrupted by an announcement from the flight deck which went something like this, "Good morning passengers, Captain Trounce here speaking from the flight deck..." I hurriedly turned back to where I thought I had seen his name. Yep, same man.

[nuuumannn]

Jun 2, 2022 8:15:16 GMT 12 johnnyfalcon said:

Shades of the Kaikoura lights seen by the Argosy crew

Ah, those squid boats do get around...

[Dave Homewood]

Squid boats, my arse.

Tic tacs more likely.

[nuuumannn]

Jun 11, 2022 22:23:00 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Squid boats, my arse.

Tic tacs more likely.

They were squid boats, David...

[Dave Homewood]

[zkdex]

Think this incident inspired NAC Captain Bruce Cathie (1930-2013) to write his Harmonic books which I read way back in the 70's.

[Dave Homewood]

Jul 14, 2022 21:18:02 GMT 12 zkdex said:

Think this incident inspired NAC Captain Bruce Cathie (1930-2013) to write his Harmonic books which I read way back in the 70's.

"Cathie said that he first saw a flying saucer over the Manukau Harbour, Auckland in 1952 and in discussions with other airline pilots discovered this was not uncommon."

From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Cathie