The New Zealand UFO Films Part I. International UFO Reporter, v. 4, n. 1.

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VOL.4 NO.1 RE qua A MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE UFO PHENOMENON REPORTS, INVESTIGATIONS & ANALYSES érP Ss NO hope of adsánce m science without à parados '—Nieis Bchr | THE NEW ZEALAND UFO FILMS The Complete IUR Report Part THREE UFOS SELECTED FROM 55 U. S. CASES: May 15-June 14 “UFO BACKLOG: - 148 UFOs from Sept. to Oct. 14 1a “HYNEK COMMENTS ON BRAZILIAN UFOLOGY 1979 à YOUR SUBSCRIPTION HAS BEEN EXTENDED SIX MONTHS BY DATE—-READ THE EDITORIAL! PGS asp da a RsEpen do é Editor-in-Chief: J Alien Hynek Managing Editor: Allan Hendry “INTERNATIONAL UFO REPORTER USPS 424890 y by International UFO Reporter. Inc , 1609 Sherman Ave. Suite 207, Evanston, ti ional UFO Seporter, Inc., all rights reserved. No part of this cal aphic or « onic process or otherwise twrnttan pormission trom the publisher. All notices of change advance and accompanied by old and new addresses. J. Allen tor pubuicor pre dress must De sent six per, Chairman of the Board Second class postage paid at Evanston Post Office ALR Toc e Rio De ci ao 6 sig e chedule ... and: you are 100, prob- am abiy./And so, by à simple waveiof the = magic wand, we Shall become, cufr Rea POR ARLS LOTE RA LUIS E [ei APR RR: rá: PRA A foro ATER E Te) ateig jo e] Jan-Jun, the missing six: months? = The material for those months exists, hd continues to be worked on lt will E he included “in this and followina ERR UE O RE ro ao O Rea LR MR TU PR UT the obvious: lag caused by :prod- PE O A ER OIE e LAR "UFO-IFO Map'! for-Sept, 1978, and we alsoihaye backiog BELA dE DRE RT na Tai a To DR E pa oca Ele Ro je NL TEIA AR R TRE once, but before long it wil.all have » been included, and: so: nothing! will VENTA Rd o TR TUR Tae RA EE URA Ce [o Ale ER eis go MITO their. subscriptionã extended py: six Hate Lo) tuo RE Tape RE (oa To) aC Te RR TU O herê, except same. revenue: for us! EDER Rr ANE DELE DER [nte Iate IDO ICU and it looks CER uTeo[oRID TE PRE CIC MC Ad | inrore! EP ET ld RO El research we can; do, and the os gostar TA MATER te A Tarot AT [citei iol acc ol SAS otite lot: | Co RÃ RS te faalo o ATE AR CL GES ato LES RE SRTA USED A Pa Su cRR PIADA to Io R o DOLAR RE and; value. How about “your local school, so that the School! kids; cam MILE VR tao at A o Misto fre a Rae] DLL RSI ni (oa: UR TA RL RT hetabloid press'and thelike-Or how receio Lalo ele Emi Tia ta a DA: PRADOS 6 OR Dai AE tIar: A ERES DRA Cn: Pi bao Rotis Le) Rr To RR tado Reto Peri RE LE PR No need to; worry: about lo PJantjun gap; No real'time has been [op GAR Ela late Rato A da lada Piada ment/in 1752) passed a lawthiat two weeks would, be: skipped' from:the Coro] pa RR RATE SA Era Le RO AS (Sd OA O LATA Te FREE do) Pe RINITE Tae A iate TRATAR TUA (cont; on back page) DD aa

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UFO triggers visitors: fighter alert TV crew films UFO”; N. Zealand calls alert Warplanes on standby for UFOs NE a His tiims one sho window sitl FOREIGN pecaro This is a represent over thase cases asinthe US Cameraman David Crockett inside the coc rerally shot out of the win s tne meter pictured on Indignant pilots say UFO report cover-up kpit o! the Argosy: ow on the right; the panel below tha trom around the worid ses that the same charac While we € stic3 ARA 135, Pp: 2/% “RIR TUMbE PUT OM UF annot exert the same degree of contro 1re reported for the phenomenon abroas THE NEW ZEALAND UFO FILMS PART |: Within ten weeks of the disap- pearance of Australian pllot Fred Valentich, New Zealand altracted its share of worldwide attention with a New Year's Eve radar-visual-movie tiim UFO case. It inspired the Royal New Zealand Air Force to prepare to scramble one or two Skyhawk fighter-bombers 24 hours later if the Wellington airport radar picked up more positive sightings of UFOs. The RNZAF also ordered one of its patrol aircraft to cruise al! night along the coast and remain in contact with a Wellington airport. Members of the Australian news team that shot the fiim brought the original tilm to the U.S. on January 8, which was studied by UFO re- searcher and optical physicist, Dr. Bruce Maccabee. On January 28, Maccabee travelled to New Zealand for 10 days, where he interviewed 7 of the 8 witnesses involved. He also spoke with the RNZAF officer who directed the official NZ government investigation. The officer suppor- ted an “unusual atmospheric conditions” conclusion and ruled out a secret military maneuver hypothe- sis. Maccabee visited the scientists of the Dept. of Scientific Industrial Research (DSIR) who conducted the actual investigation, only to discover 2 Description of the Event that they had only spoken with the pilot, co-pilot, and an ATC controller . and hadnt even looked at the film! Maccabee showed them a copy and they acted interested, but they informed him of an experiment con- ducted several nights after the film ing with an Air Force Orion aircraft. Several “solid” targets were seen on radar and the Orion was guided to the various locations, but each time it got there, it only encountered turbu- lence. Nothing was ever seen by the crew. Maccabee then returned to the U.S. and discussed his findings with a variety of interested researchers, including Dr. Richard Haines, Dr.

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Peter Sturrock, Dr. James Harder, Neil Davis, Brad Sparks, Stanton Friedman, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Allan ) “Hendry, Dr. Gilbert Levin and others, Then a press conference was con- ducted in New York City on March 26 by the Australian TV station; it included Dr. Maccabee, Dr. Hynek and Jack Acuff of NICAP. Untor- tunately, the news media were pre- occupied that day by the signing of the Middie East peace treaty, though even the New York Times ran a short article on the case. Most of the following reconstruc- tion of events, then, is baseg on information obtained during Bruce Maccabee's exhaustive investigation. Supplementary material was con- tributed by Paul Norman in Australia, Rocky Wood in New Zealand, Peter Tomikawa, Richard Haines and John Prytz of the Australian Coordination Section of the Center for UFO Studies. But first, we must look at a forgotten aspect of this entire event. the original radar-visual sighting that preceeded this sighting by ten days, and caused the TV film crew to be in the right place at the right time. THE DECEMBER 21st SIGHTING Nortb Taland NEW buy SI ZEALAND O) Soo 4 tina? p Sristemand E Indeed, the film crew would never have followed that route armed with sensitive color film it they hadn't gone out to cover the UFO expe- rience ot another pair of Argosy “planes that also flew along the coast in the early morning hours of Decem- ber 21. As with the New Year's Eve flight, these Argosy freighters be- longed to Sate-Air, Ltd.; Argosy 1 took off from Blenheim at 12:35 AM and headed south on a dog-leg routes toward Christchurch that would fol- low the eastern coast of the South Island. On board were Captain John Randle, 45, a pilot for 28 years, and First Officer Keith Heine, 32. In Wellington, Senior Radar Controller John Cordy, 45, and Precision Talk- down Controiler, Andy Herd, were awaiting the arrival of an Air New Zealand DC-8. As the plane flew toward the coast at 220 knots, the two-man crew saw an intensely- bright white light, “too powerful to be a vehicle's headiamps”, Capt. Randie said. He could see land fea- tures lit up underneath it as it stowly passed. Randle and Heine were only mildly curious, so they dian't radio in the sighting Meanwhile, radar men Cordy and Herd in Wellington were alerted by Flight Services Officer Bill Frame at the Blenheim control. On his first night on the job, he was reporting three lights that were “much brighter” than landing lights off Cape Campbel!, one of them appeared to emit a “shaft of light”. Cordy acknowledged seeing mysterious blips on the scope earlier, but they ignored them. On radar, they saw five targets moving up” and down the coast south of them in a 16-km (10-mile) quadrant over the sea. Herd phoned the Kelburn Meteorological Office to see if any weather balloons were launched, only to be told that the only one had burst a few minutes earlier. The RNZAF had nothing in the air to account for the strong biips, either. One signal in particular at 3 AM moved like an aircraft at 120 knots off Cape Campbell, then stopped and hovered for half an hour 80 km SE of Wellington. Wellington called the Christchurch radar facility about the strong echoes and they picked them up, too. The five other lights continued to move about within their quadrant, and one more appeared inland. At 3:30 AM, Argosy 2 took off from Blenheim, adopting the same flight path of the previous plane. On board were Capt. Vern Powell, 55, with 18,000 hours of flight time, and co- pilot lan Pirie, 31; they were told they might be asked to investigate some unidentified radar returns When they were 2000 meters high and climbing to 3200 meters, Cordy asked the plane If they could see anything 20 km to their right (star- board). “We couldn't see a thing,” Powell said, “then within a matter of 3 mun Fogarty, Dr. J. Alien Hynek and Dr Bruce Maccabes appeared on day of the press conte ence seconds, we were asked to check for a sighting 40 km to port.” Pirie spotted a bright white light with an intermittent reddish tinge above them and to their left, changing hue back and forth noticeably The Argosy came level with the light when they reached 3200 meters (10,000 feet) and their onboard weather radar revealed it was several kilometers away. At Wellington, the radar controllers noted that the un- identified target had hovered motion- lessly until the plane caught up with it; then it started pacing the plane at a distance of 37 km to the east. Visually, Powell said that the light remained in the same position rela- tive to them. It would disappear into clouds occasionally and reappear. “Pve been flying since 1944, and | know a star or a planet when | see one. This wasn't anything I've seen before.” Wellington considered having him move in for a closer look but they were authorized to request a flight diversion only on search and rescue operations “because some- one has to pay the costs involved” and Powell wasn't anxious to delay his company's cargo. Cordy, a con- troller with 26 years of experience, said the blips were at least as big and as solid as the Argosy. The Argosy 2, having watched the light for 10-12 minutes, changed course 60º to star- board, and the light lagged behind and disappeared. Wellington lost it from their screens soon after. As Argosy 2 approached Christ- church, near Motunau Island, the plane's weather radar picked up a fast-moving signal off Banks Penin- sula shooting across its flight path. “we got a visual sighting as it passed”, Powell said. “lt was a bright, flashing white light, almost

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like a strobe.” It shot past their bow, traversing 24 km in five seconds — or 10,000 m.p.h.! Then it veered sharp!y to the right and disappeared. Christchurch couldn't see this on radar as they have a blind spot there, 40 km seaward from the city. A Dr. J. G. Tees of Amberley claims to have seen the light as well. Captain Vern Powell in the Argosy cockpit Now Capt. Randle's Argosy 1 left Christchurch flying northbound for Auckland. As they approached the Clarence River area, they spotted the five objects still ofíshore at about 50 km range. He saw them as white/ amber lights, four times the strength of landing lights, reflecting off the water. They passed 16 km south of them, an estimated 150 meters above the sea. The Argosy completed an orbit above the objects before it re- turned to its course north. Finally, the Argosy 1 saw three targets on radar that suggested ships; the crew saw them visually by their lights Air Traffic Controlters John Cordy and Andy Her, involved in the Dec. 21 event afterwards, but were puzzled by the presence of “ships” that would be big enough (1009 tons) to show up on their weather ralar yet De in such un- safe coastal waters. À RX. Sapds Meibourne's TV station Channel O (“OH”) decided to run a news story on Capt. Powell's experience, so it commmissioned a reporter and a film crew to obtain some relevant footage for visual purposes. Australian re- porter Quentin Fogarty pursued this project by boarding a four-engins, turbo prop Argosy freighter which was making its standard Saturday night-Sunday morning newspaper delivery run from Blenheim to Wall- ington to Christchurch and back. Also on board were the pilot, Captain Bill Startup, the co-pilot, Robert Guard, cameraman David Crockett, and his wife Ngaire ('NAY-ree"), who operated the tape recorder . .. five witnesses in all, The weather, as noted by the film crew, was excellent for flying, with no noticeable departure from a stan- dard temperature lapse rate from ground level to 14,000 feet, There were low clouds over Wellington, with visibility about 60 km over the sea. Winds at cruising altitud (14,000') were from the west at 10-15 knots maximum. Atmospheric con- ditions were sufficiently steady to allow operation with automatic pilot and automatic height control (which is pressure-sensitive). Wellington radar showed no noticeable inversion effects. See the technical detail sections for more information on the Welling- ton radar facility, the movie camera and film used and the weather con- ditions. TECHNICAL DATA WELLINGTON TOWER RADAR TYPE: Marconi 264, 50 cm (587 MHz), 500 kilo- watts. MTI (Moving Target Indicator) CAPABILITY: Targets with radial velocities in excess of 15 knots are detected in the MTI mode wit" phase shift and digital scan summing electronics. Observations on known targets with and with- out the MTI processing indicate that the MÁTI improves the sensitivity of the system. Stfbng targets in the MTI mode may be weak or even non-existent in the norma! mode PULSE REPETITION RATE: automatically varied among six froquencios avsraging 500/ sec. PULSE DURATION: 2.7 microseconds ROTATION RATE: 12 sec! revolution AZIMUTHAL BEAMWIDTH: 2.1º 4 0.2º ANTENNA GAIN: 30 dB over a dipole POLARIZATION: horizontal ABSOLUTE DISTANCE ACCURACY: 1% of full scale RELATIVE DISTANCE ACCURACY: (set by blip size on the display) about 1 mile on the maximum range. MAXIMUM RANGE 10,000 ft ANTENNA HEIGHT: about 1700 ft. above seu level UPWARD TILT OF THE CENTER OF THE TRANSMITTED LOBE: about 4* (no height 150 nautical miles at resolution--surface targets are detected for 30-50 miies) DISPLAY: 12" diameter PPI with 10-mile range rings on the 150-mile range. CHRISTCHURCH TOWER RADAR TYPE: Marconi 264, 50 em, 50 kw MT CAPABILITY: Similar to Wellington, but not as sophisticated MAXIMUM RANGE: 10,000 ANTENNA HEIGHT: about 120 ft. above sea tevel UPWARD TILTOF THE TRANSMITTED LOBE Cone of invisibility extending outward from the antenna which rises at a rate of 100 ftimite. Targets cannot be segn bensath it under ordinary atmospheric conditions AIRPLANE WEATHER RADAR — used on northbound trip onty TYPE: M.E.L. Equipment Co., E190 Series, 3 cm (9375 MHz), 15 kw MIT CAPABILITY: none OPERATING MODE: “map mode”, a tan- shaped beam extendirg from 3º to about 15º below the aircraft's “horizon" AZIMUTHAL SWEEP RANGE. + trom straight anead SWEEP RATE: about 3 sec. per cycia 100 nautical miles at about 50* PULSE REPETITION RATE: 400) sec PULSE DURATION: 2.2 microseconds BEAMWIDTH: 3,5* RANGE: 150, 50, 20 miles (used on 20-mile range) DISPLAY: sector display with S-mile range rings and 15º azimuth markings MOVIE CAMERA TYPE: Bolex H16, EBM Electric 16-mim reflex movie camera. Operated at 24 frames/sec. on the southbound flight and 10 framesisec. on tha northbound trip. Rotating shuttor disc In front of film plans with & 160º opening LENSES: Vario-Switar zoom lens, 16-100 mem at 111.9, used on the Ilight south. A Sun Macro-Zoom, 80-240 mm lens was also used at t/4 on the return leg. The latter was found to bs out of adjustment, at full zoom, objects at “infinity” were actually in focus at the “15 feet” setting. This meant that distant objects (llka the lights) were out of focus when tha tens ring was set at Intinity, This serves to explain why one section of film shows a large dim image which contracts to a briçhter, much smaller form, which then returns to & dim large defocused form. This form is accompanied by an spparent symmetry inversion of the defocused image FILM: Fujicolor type 8425, 16-mm, ASA 400 color reversa! film. Standard development was used

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ARks 139, p ' 5)$ THE SOUTHBOUND TRIP PLANE Saw WELLINGTON RADAR SAW; PLANE TIME LOCATION (AM-dst) “a 12:10 through 12.12 Lights toward Kaikoura appear- ing'disappearing (Seen by pilot, co-pilot) at plane's 1 aclock position Targets at plane's 1 o'clock posi- ton at 13 miles, appearing/dis- appearing "2 12:15 Target at plane's 3 o'clock near coastline. Target in front of plane, 10 miles (one sweep only) Strong target at plane's 11 o'ctock at 3 miles. "3 12:16 12:16:30 “4 12:17:30 2.19 Target at plare's left, 2 miles. Strong target now at 10:00, 12 miles “5 12:22 "6 12:27 (Plane pertormed a 2 min. left- hand orbit to survey area) Fogarty recorded his first commentary on the lights which ne was then ob- serving not to the left, but in the dire n of Kalkoura (other than city lights) The lights were located about 5* below the plane's horizon. Inter- estingly, the lights wera likely seen against a background of mountains here, not sky Plane confirmed the “fashing tight” in the directon posed by Wellington radar Target left o! plana, one mile. Re- mained stationary while plane orbited Target in front ot plane, 3 mites After the turn-off here toward Christchurch, the only targets were 12-15 miles behind the plane, Target one mile behind the plane. Target now 4 miles behind the plane, holding stationary for 6-7 sweeps Copilo! saw a flashing light trav- eling aiong at the rght of the plane A turther target was now seen at the piane's 3:00 position at 4 miles The target may now have moved closer to the plano, as the tast target had disappeared and there was now a single, doubly-strong target on the scope. At this 90- mile distance from Wellington, blips are 3 miles “wide” and 1- mile “thick”, so the targat could have been as much as 3 miles away from the plane The ptane's blip, after being un- usually large for 3 swaeps, settled down to normal "7 12:29 12:29.30 "8 12:30 12:30:45 12:31:30 "9 “ro 12:35 mm 12:36:30 “Got a target at 3:00 just behind us,” the one above. Fogarty re- corded seeing it, too. (Plane performed a 2-minute left- hang orbit, but nothing was seen) “Yes, and going around now al 4:00 at 4 mitos.” Previous targat now (apparentty) dropped back behind plane 15 miles; joined by 2 others Three biips behind the plane had mergad into one large ona.

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The Wellington Air Traffic Con- troller was Geoffrey Causer, who utilized an MTi-processed radar pic- ture (see Technical Data). A radar technician named Bryan Chalmers was also present for part of the time, watching a “raw”, non-MTi-radar display. The event was monitored from the Christchurch end by a Geottrey single controller. a half-hour prior to the Argosy's reporting any- thing visual, Wellington radar had been watching “weird” targets on radar east of the Clarence River and Kaikoura coast. Any discussion of distances be- tween radar blips refers to edge-to- edge distance. As will be noted, the blips can represent an exaggerated physical size with increasing dis- tance from the antenna. These dis- tances are also based on the as- sumption that the UFOs and the plane are at the same altitude, Thus, the radar distances for ivisually) unseen targets may be greater than indicated. All events are based on the timed tape transcript of Wellington's radio conversation with the Argosy (the Christchurch tape was erased, regrettably), Bruce Maccabbee's dis- cussions with the controlters and witnesses, and Fogarty's recorded comments. Distances are in nautiçai miles (6076 ft. or 1.85 km.). DISCUSSION: SOUTHBOUND TRIP The Argosy departed from Well- ington, New Zealand at 11:46 PM on the night of December 30, 1978. About ten minutes after midnight on Dec. 31, Fogarty and crew were back in the loading bay working on a “standup” for the news story, (see position &1 on the southbound map). kt was also their intention to film norma! city and airport lights out of the plane's window. Ali of this shoot- ing was handheld as a tripod proved to be too cumbersome aboard the plane. The plane was climbing through 10,000' at 170 knots air speed toward its cruising altitude (14,000') and speed (215 knots, or 3.6 mites+sao,). Fogarty recorded his first statement about this point: “We are now approaching the Clarence River where the highest concentration ofU 3 was sighted on the morning of Dec. 21. We're at an altitude of 14,000 feet and we're on exactly the same route taken by Captain Powell when he encountered those mys- terious objects. It's a beautiful clear night out * and naturally we'll be looking out for anything unusual," À couple of minutes later, the film crew was being informed of the lights out- side their own plane. At around 12:22 AM, Fogarty recorded his first “on-the-spot” commentary: “It's kind of hard to describe my feelings right at the moment, but, uh, we've seen probably 6 or 7 or even more bright lights over Kaikoura. A num- ber of thesa have been picked up by Wellington radar.” Five minutes later, he noted that the lights were so bright, they seemed to be llghting up the sky over Kaikoura. Crockett ob- tained about 12 seconds of footage showing some sort of oval, blue- white lights which were quite bright. He also filmed 5 seconds worth of several lights seen at once in a hofi- zontal row that randomily flashed on and oft. His footage of the town lights of Kalkoura is interesting by comparison . .. the UFO images are much brighter. All of these shots were of lights seen from the 12:00 to 3:00 (front to right) quadrant, with regard to the plane's direction of travel. About 12:28 AM, tho plane had switched over to the Christchurch tower's radio frequency. No sooner had they done this (map location 47), than Wellington radar saw a target right behind them, so the plane switched back to the Wellington tfre- quency. Note the rather firm radar- visual confirmation that happened at map position 48, a few minutes atter this began. Both of the operators at Wellington watched the radar end of this close fly-by, and agreed that the single blip was like two aircraft flying side-by-side at the same speed. There was no bending of the broad blip as might be expected if one portion (such as the UFO) were sta- tionary while the other portion (the plane) moved by it. The plane would have moved about two miles during this time (three sweeps-36 seconds), a distance which would have ex- ceeded the minimum difference in distance between two targets that could be measured on the scope. Shortiy after this occurrence, Chalmers went to another radar scope with the MTI processing turned off; he saw the normal 6 ARX. 1939 pº es amount of land and sea clutter within 20 to 30 miles of Wellington, but no indications of anomalous propa- gation. Furthermore, the “weird” tar- gets seen on the MT! scope were not seen on the normal display, sug- gesting they were actually weak re- flectors of the 50 cm wavelength radar. As the plane witnesses watched the counterpart flashing light, Capt. Startup turned off the steady green wingtip light to insure that there was no kind of unusual raflection When the plane came in for a fanding at Christchurch at 1:01 AM, the pilot and copilot remember being informed by the local radar operator that a target was pacing them in toward their right. Looking outside, the co-pilot saw a flashing light that looked like a car at first until he saw itcross a river at aircraft speed. They were too busy landing the Argosy to watch it carefully, though. The plane's onboard radar was not brought into play on the southbound flight After the plane had landed, and the newspapers were being unioaded, the crew discussed their experiences with the Christchurch controller, he described an anomalous target that was not particularly impressive to him. Crockett and Fogarty decided to fly back with the plane to Blenheim to get more footage. Ngaire Crockett didn't go back with them, so a Christchurch reporter, Dennis Grant, took her place. Interestingly, Grant was the only person on the flight known to Fogarty personally. DISCUSSION: NORTHBOUND TRIP The plane left Christchurch at 2:16 AM for its northbound return to Blen- heim. Weather conditions were still excellent with no noticeable depar- ture from standard lapse rate con- ditions; winds at cruising altitude (13,000 feet) were from the SW at 10-15 knots. There was low cloud cover over Christchurch from 1200 to 3000 feet, scattored low clouds over the ocean and a possible cloud bank 40 miles east of the South Island. Once the Argosy climbed above the clouds, visibility was unlimited. In Blenheim, tha weather conditions at 2:45 AM were as follows: winds were NW at 10-15 knots. Visibllity was 60 km, with 1/8 cloud cover at 4000 feet. Temperature was 15ºC. Tha crew was able to operate the plane on automatic height contro! at cruising altitude. The Argosy climbed through the clouds at 1000 feet/min., initially flying 054º true (NE) at 155 knots. They were just breaking through the clouds at 2800 feet when they

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AR: 3a pH THE NORTHBOUND TRIP PLANE TIME PLANE RADAR LOCATION TAM) SAW: SAW: " 2:18:40 Lightat 10-30" to the right of the plane same level " 2:21:30 Grant, Startup and Guard all con- Airplane's own radar was tirmed that azimuth of radar and — switched from 50- to 20-mile visual targets were the same. range. Target seen 30º to right on Fogarty recorded that tight may scope, just under 20 mites. Blip have faded infout due to clouds 3-5X size of large fishing boat. Crockett filmed a light which did fade in and out. Light was seen 5-30* below aircraft's level. 2:25 Target went off radar map mode since angie of target exceeded 50º. Came as close as 10 miles, "3 2:29 Plane turned to righ! toward light (Seen too low tor plane's narrow (now at their 3:00 position). As radar beam hero) they headed SE straight for it, the light swung around to their right again (!) on its own. “a 2:31 Crockett used 240-mm lens, as plane turned back toward original course. See text. Fogarty last saw it out the right window, almost straight down. Startup saw it again to the left after the turn. "5 2.4 Wellington saw radar target at plane's 10:00 at 20 miles, eo 2:45 Target at plane's 9:30 at 16 miles. “ 2:46:30 Target at plane's 9:00 "8 2:47 Two targets at piane's 11:00 at 15 miles 2:48:30 Target at 9:00 at 8 miles. (Startup later asserted he saw these in the same positions on the plane's own radar, but he hadn't paid close attention). “o 2:51 Coliection of lights at 12:00 Strong target at 12:00 at 20 miles, (2 miles off coast, 10 miles south of Cape Campbell!) 2:51:30 Second light to the left of the last one, according to Fogarty's tape, which flashed “extremely brightiy”. Both lights taded and reappesred. One was likened to an orange aircraft beacon, The tight(s) noted by Fogarty to roll in an elliptical path, long axis vertical. This motion was cap- tured on film, with a flash rate of 1.1 sec., from bright white to dim red/orange. Fogarty atso referred to a cluster of lights including one which “keeps Ilashing”. Tha plane requested that tha Blen- heim beacon (50 miles away) be turned oft. The lights seen from the plane disappeared at about the same time 2:52 Another light was seen seconds Target at plane's 9:00 at 8 miles later, but not necessarily Inaccord and 10:00 at 10 miles. Target with new radar targets (at right). south of Cape Campbell disap- peared about the same time as the beacon was turned off. "o 2 One or more of these may hava Four targets seen at 9:00, 9:30, been seen 10:00, and 10:30, all about 1 miles off the coast. 2:54 Target at 12:00 at 2 miles

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ARX. 189.88 2:55 (Unseeny Plane “merged” with target though “UFO's" height was un- determinabte 2:55:30 Ergnt t behind Woodburmne | (Unseen) es 2:56 at 2:00-3:00 o! plane Unseen, but ta at 9:30 at 5 miles. Then “just one point” of target at plane's 3:00 at 15 miles "2 2:57 Two lights seen just prior to Targets at12:00 at 2 miles and 10 plane's orbilting descent. Gone miles a began when 2-minute orbit was com- Pp Plane attributed these to fishing boat lights. Venus now rising. pointed out by co-pitot to tne rest 13 2:58 Light over Picton spotted the light (at map position 1) while 7 miles out of Christchurch. The witnesses offered different im- pressions about it: Startup thought it was the full moon at first without features (the real moon had set in the west hours before). Guard des- cribed it as a “squashed orange”. Grant wrote down at the time that it resembled a white ping-pong ball iliuminated by a spotlight. A reflec- tion of the lights off of clouds or the ocean was also noted. Dennis Grant repeatedly compared the position of the light with the target on the plane's mapping radar. Since the target was about 18 miles from the plane, 30º to its right, and since the plane was 15 miles from Christ- church, the target was about 32-35 miles from the Christchurch radar. That system has a tower limit of eftectiveness that rises 100 feet for each mile. Thus, an object at 3000 teet 30 miles away would not be seen When the plane was 32 miles out of Christchurch at 11,500 feet, the light was 70-90º to the plane's right and off its radar. The cameraman obtained severa! minutes of film out the far-right-hand cockpit window at this time. The images range from yellowish/white elliptical shapes with reddish fringes to overexposed, triangular and circular forms; typical angular sizes were on the order ot 1:2 miltiradians. One useful zoom shot shows a cockpit meter (below the window sill) just below tha image of the bright light outside. The Argosy reached its cruising altitude of 13,000 feet and 215 knots air speed at map position 43, 35-38 miles out of Christchurch; at this point, the pilot turned right and fiew southeast toward it—yet the light also swung around from directly in tront of them to their right again. The light was more noticeably depressed in angle below the plane now as wel!, which serves to explain why It didn't briefly reappear on the plane's radar. it was here that Crockett filmed the light through the faulty 240 mm zoom tens, resulting in his description of the large image to Fogarty. “lt now appears to be an oval-shaped object with rings of light going around.” The tauity Sun zoom tens “blew up” the light source into an exaggerated, dimmer extra focal image Before the plane turned to the right, the tight was described by him as having a “brightiy-lit bottom and a sort of transparent top”. During the time that the lens was in focus, he did obtain images that are consistent with the bell-shaped, bright- bottomed forms seen through the 100 mm lens. This southeasterly course lasted 1 or 2 minutes. As the plane executed a left turn to get back on course, the 8 pilot was surprised to see the light appear suddenly on the plane's left. Then it appeared to move downward, behind and beneath the plane. This was the light's closest approach to the Argosy, but it went unfiimed. The sighting line was too far below the plane's horizon, and the camera would have bumped overhead switches. The plane landed at airport at about 3:10 AM. Blenheim NEXT ISSUE: PARTI e What does the film reveal aftor analysis? * How effectivo ere the prosaic explanations? s What about tho second film shot on the ground? THE BRAZILIAN UFO SCENE by J. Allen Hynek “For God's sake--do something about these OVNIs (UFOs)... so! can go back to catching my arma- dillos!” So spoke a Brazilian farmer in the state of Minais Gerais to Alberto do Carmo. Armadilios are best caught at night, and these yellow balls of light had become so common, and so frightening to the natives that they were, and are, very afraid to venture into the forest at night; they still ventured into the forest (or 'bush") but they developed a routine of hiding under bushes when the lights came by, so they wouldn't be grabbed by the UFO. These balls of light, sometimes called a part of the “Mother of Gold” phenomenon [a spiril that is associated with mineral deposits and presumably is inter- ested in protecting them], are said to attack the unwary. So, at least, this part of the UFO phenomenon in Brazil has become a part of the folklore, or has attached itself to it. Apparently, the “mother of Gold” phenomenon is quite com-