The Kaikoura Lights

[mumbles]

Oct 21, 2008 9:21:15 GMT 12 FlyNavy said:

stu, I'm glad you found that item. I found it yesterday but did not want to start another discussion. What fascinated me was the idea that something seen on radar that vanishes suddenly is somehow an UFO. I would have seen quite a few in my time but never once thought they were UFOs or anything other than false radar images or whatever benign stuff is out there (like faulty radars, clouds).

I'm glad an alternate theory was offered: "But David Clarke, a UFO expert and lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, has offered an alternative explanation. He said that in the 1960s it emerged that the CIA had been engaged in a secret project codenamed Palladium, in which advanced equipment was used to create simulated radar blips close to Soviet airspace."

CHAFF can show a dramatic radar return (if it was chaff that was being seen). Whatever. Anyway for sure this will be my last response to the UFO posts. Big sigh all round. ;D

Fair enough, but the whole crux of the Kaikoura incidents is that the radar operators were completely dismissive of the returns as false until corresponding lights were seen, by observers very experienced in the area and conditions (by this I mean the lights normally visible on the route). The official explanations simply do not explain all of the sightings.

[Dave Homewood]

Yes, I agree. And his moustache looked glued on in his news reader clip!

It's good to see Paul and his Argosy getting a bit of air time though.

[theavgasdinosaur]

Has the original footage ever been made available on video or DVD?
Thanks in anticipation.
Be lucky
David

[vgp]

don't know if this is what you were looking for found it on youtube search 'NZ aviation' must be some sort of interest it? with 1538 view in 2 days since it was uploaded.
New Zealand UFO Footage, 1978
nz.youtube.com/watch?v=deLXJj9jSAE

[Dave Homewood]

Here are some earlier Kaikoura Lights, from The Press dated 19th of May 1972. Another cover up? Lol:

U.F.O. NOT SIGHTED

A white fluorescent trail was seen from the Kaikoura Hospital by the duty sister at 5.45 p.m. yesterday. It was travelling east to west until it burst in a fluorescent flame and faded. A quarter of an hour later a nurse coming on duty saw a repetition of the same thing. It was thought that it might have been a meteorite but after the phenomenon was seen yet again a quarter of an hour later it was thought to be distress flares. After a check was made with the Kaikoura police it was found that the R.N.Z.A.F. was carrying out exercises.

[Dave Homewood]

Do Skyhawks or Vampires leave white fluorescent trails at night?

[Dave Homewood]

Jet fighter put on stand-by to check U.F.O. sightings

A Skyhawk of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's strike squadron has been put on stand-by to investigate any further positive U.F.O. sightings.

A defence spokesman said last evening that one of the 75 Squadron fighter-bombers at Ohakea would be “scrambled” if the Wellington Airport radar picked up any more positive sightings that “looked as though they could be interesting.” The Press Association reports that an Orion maritime reconnaissance aircraft may also be moved from Auckland to Ohakea to join the investigation.

The move comes after a spate of week-end sightings of U.F.O.s over the Clarence River area, near Kaikoura. They, in turn, followed positive sightings by an aircraft, which were also recorded on radar, 10 days earlier. An Australian television crew, flying in a Safe Air Argosy, filmed one object early on Sunday morning. The film, which Melbourne Channel 0 says is the best-documented sighting of an unidentified flying object, has already been screened in Britain and in Australia.

A few hours earlier on Saturday night, Mr Geoff Causer, an air traffic controller at Wellington, had picked up “scores” of U.F.O.s on the airport radar. At one stage he had 10 on his radar screen at one time.

The Safe Air pilot, captain Bill Startup, of Blenheim, said yesterday that the large object filmed by the television crew — “a very bright, white, light” — apparently tracked his plane, moving in front, above, and below it.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We do not consider there is a defence threat, but it is all very interesting.”

The film will be shown by TV1 at 6.30 p.m. today. Mr D. C. Grant, a news reporter for TV1, said that Channel 0’s description of the film coincided with what he had seen.

Mr Grant said yesterday that “a spherical object” kept pace with the aircraft for about 70km, flying slightly below and in front. The Argosy’s radar put it about 15km ahead. The light varied in intensity and height, and appeared about 35km northeast of Christchurch.

Christchurch Air Traffic
Control did not pick up the objects, said a radar operator, Mr D. Clemens. The Clarence River was outside Christchurch radar range. The object seen by Mr Grant north-east of Christchurch was not recorded either, possibly because it was moving below the height at which the radar worked efficiently. On the flight to Christchurch from Blenheim between 12 midnight and 1 a.m. on Sunday, a Melbourne television reporter, Mr Quentin Fogarty, shot film that showed an object, and two other lights, tracking the aircraft for about 10 minutes, Mr Grant said. On the return flight to Blenheim about 2.30 a.m. an object appeared in front of the aircraft, fluctuating in height and intensity, and kept pace slightly beneath it for about 70km. Mr Grant said that this object had a white circumference, and white bands of light through it.

It had been reported that Clarence Bridge residents had seen U.F.O.s, but people spoken to by a reporter of “The Press” last evening said that they did not give much credence to what they had seen. Mr R. J. Todhunter, of Clarence, said that his sighting was of a “white flashing light, well out, just like an aeroplane light, except that it was the wrong colour and not moving very fast.” He saw it at 12.30 a.m. on December 19.

“It could have been anything,” he said. “I wouldn’t have said anything if people weren’t talking about it now.”

Tim Stace, aged 11, of Kekerengu, said that he saw something in the sky shaped “like a drip of water, and red all over. Every couple of seconds it ‘flashed.’ It did not move very fast.”

Tim said he was lying in bed at 9.30 p.m. several weeks ago looking at the sky when he saw the “pinprick” from the corner of his window. He saw it for about a minute.

Two other Clarence residents, Mr R. D. Middleton, and a son of Mr J. R. Johnston, said they did not know of anyone in Clarence who had seen U.F.O.s. People were talking about them now “as a joke,” they said.

The Press Association reports that details of all the week-end sightings had been passed on to the Ministry of Defence. The defence spokesman said last evening: “If Wellington air traffic control have any more positive radar sightings in the next night or so and they think they are worth investigating, we will do so.

“An aircraft is ready, and we will react.”

Mr Causer welcomed this news. “I am delighted,” he said. “We now have recorded sightings by six pilots on three Argosy aircraft over 10 days and a host of radar sightings. “Obviously some strange phenomenon exists and it needs to be investigated.” Mr Causer said that the number of inexplicable radar “returns” — as the sightings are known to air traffic controllers — recently was far greater than anything experienced in New Zealand before.

“I was a complete sceptic,” he said. “But obviously there is something there. I couldn’t hazard a guess at what it might be.”

PRESS, 2 JANUARY 1979

[Dave Homewood]

Air crew criticise TV U.F.O. film

PA Wellington

The two crew of the aircraft from which an unidentified flying object was filmed over the Kalkoura coast on Sunday morning said last evening that they were disappointed with the film they saw on the TV1 News.

“I was astounded." said Captain Bill Startup, of Blenheim. "It wasn’t as we saw it.”

The first officer, Mr Bob Guard, said: "It was a slightly different shape and different colour from what I saw” Both men said that they believed the movement of the aircraft had caused the rapid zig-zagging of the objects as seen on the film. However.

Mr David Crockett. of Wellington, who shot the film for Melbourne’s Channel O, said: “That’s the way it was — darting all over the place just as you saw it.”

Captain Startup and Mr Guard both said that the television film appeared to be out of sequence. Captain Startup said that objects seen on the southbound flight and the large object tracker on the return journey to Blenheim appeared to have been interposed when the film was put together. “The small object which was darting around was on the southbound flight, and the large one, pictured in the newspapers, was on the way back north.” he said.

Captain Startup said that he was convinced the rapid darting action of the smaller object was caused by the movement of the aircraft. Mr Guard said: “There is quite a lot of vibration, and I think it was caused by the camera being held on the back of a seat possibly.”

He also said that he believed the camera lens or filter had changed the colour of the big object. “To my eyes it had a far more orange tint than the yellow and mottled grey speckles we saw! on television.”

Both men remained convinced that they had seen something for which there was no logical explanation. “It was unlike anything I have ever seen before.” said Captain Startup. "And I don’t profess to have any idea what it was.”


PRESS, 3 JANUARY 1979

[Dave Homewood]

Bright lights in night sky north of Kaikoura

Bright lights have been sighted in the night sky north of Kaikoura over the last few days.

The latest sightings were made by Miss Trudy Peterson, a friend, and her family. Miss Peterson, a telephone operator at Kaikoura, was returning home to Mangamaunu at 11 p.m. on Thursday with Mr Stewart Abernethy. The couple saw a big, globular light in the sky north of the Hapuku River bridge, eight miles north of Kaikoura.

They stopped their car on the north side of the bridge and watched the light pass over the bridge in a southerly direction. It circled back and appeared to sink down into a paddock owned by Mr K. J. Mackie, on the north bank of the Hapuku River. The couple then lost sight of the light.

On Saturday evening, when returning home, Miss Peterson saw a light on the coast She and Mr and Mrs L. J. Peterson watched the light for half an hour through binoculars.

Mr Peterson, a retired police constable, said that through binoculars the light looked like a huge cigar, standing up. The top end was bathed in a green light and the bottom end was pink in colour. It was hovering in the sky off Victoria Rock, about 12 miles north of Kaikoura. The object had moved from right to left towards the shoreline and then raced off into the distance in a northerly direction.

Mr Peterson said he had been sceptical about unidentified flying object sightings in the area and still had no idea of what the object might have been.

He had not seen anything like it before.

PRESS, 9 JANUARY 1979