UFOs Patrol the
New Zealand Sky
Date: December 21 and 30, 1978
Location: Kaikoura, New Zealand
A series of unidentified lights were seen over New Zealand on December 21 and 30, 1978. The following case has a substantial amount of evidence that proves that the UFOs could not have been a natural phenomenon. In The Journal of Scientific Exploration parapsychologist John Beloff wrote the following about the Kaikoura sightings: “The New Zealand UFO sightings of the twenty-first of December 1978 are unique among civilian UFO reports because there is a large amount of documentary evidence, which includes the recollections of seven witnesses, two tape recordings made during the sightings, the detection of some unusual ground and airplane targets, and a 16mm color movie.” 43
On December 21, 1978, numerous reports were made by locals who described seeing strange lights in the sky. The lights were seen from the South Island, also known as Te Waipounamu. One of the reports was made by employees of Safe Air airline. The individuals were on board an Armstrong Argosy aircraft when, out of nowhere, five white flickering lights surrounded their plane.
The lights were described as being as large as a house and they were also being tracked on the aircraft’s radar. When contacting the Wellington air traffic control, the operators were also able to track the objects on their radar. The objects were making an odd rectangular pattern. The five unidentified targets were not following a predetermined flight route that raised alarm; coincidentally or not, however, the objects disappeared off the radar and out of the sky before the military were informed.
Just nine days later, on December 30, a similar encounter was reported, this time by a television crew who were on a flight en route to Christchurch. Luckily enough, crew members on board the flight were equipped with cameras and thus were able to capture the lights on film. Just like the previous report, several enormous bright white lights surrounded the aircraft and disappeared within a few seconds, only to reappear once again shortly thereafter. On the second time, the pilots were more prepared and captured the lights on their 16mm camera. After a couple of minutes, the lights disappeared, but the substantial amount of evidence, most particularly the photographic evidence, was enough for experts to come to a definite conclusion.
The Investigation
Dr. Bruce Maccabee, the same Navy optical physicist who analyzed the McMinnville photographs, had the following to say regarding the Kaikoura lights: “The main reason for the uniqueness of these sightings is the amount of information that is available for analysis. The information that is available for most other sightings is only that which is extracted from the memories of the witness(es). A relatively small fraction of all other sightings involve photographs or “landing traces” and a few have radar contacts associated with visual sightings (“radar-visual” sightings). However, there is no sighting (by civilians, at least), other than the N.Z. sightings, which has (a) two independent tape recordings made at the time of the events, (b) reports of unusual ground-based (search) and airborne (weather) radar targets that were coincident with visual sightings, (c) a color movie (16 mm professional camera and film), as well as (d) the memories of a sizeable number of credible witnesses (five).” 44
The first explanation provided by the Royal New Zealand Air Force stated that the lights were a bright Venus, yet they did not take into account that Venus would not have been visible in the sky at the time of the sighting. With that being said, a second hypothesis was put forward: the lights were meteorites. Once again, the good old meteorite explanation, which is responsible for every UFO sighting.
Sir Bernard Lovell, a physicist and astronomer at the Jodrell Bank Radio observatory, stated that the lights could have been unburned meteorites, even though the lights were reported to shine for a number of minutes and unburned meteorites only last a few seconds before disappearing. Moreover, Lovell did not take into account the objects’ maneuverability or the analysis of the photographic evidence, which ruled out the meteorite hypothesis.
The third and final explanation provided by the Royal New Zealand Air Force was that the lights were a reflection off a squid hunting fleet. In a report titled “Investigations of Unidentified & Radar Sightings East Coast South Island,” the New Zealand Defense Force stated the following: “Not only would the squid boats give a good source of radar return whilst in transit to the squid fishing ground, but they generate a very large amount of light when fishing at night. Each boat generates about 200 kilowatts of light to attract squid to its lures, and this light source cannot be discounted as a cause of some of the visual sightings.” 45
There are a number of reasons why many experts, including Maccabee, discounted this explanation. First and foremost, the pilots were aware of the squid boats in the sea; they had seen them prior to the UFO sighting and were well aware of their position. The boats themselves were roughly one hundred meters away from where the individuals reported seeing the bright lights in the sky. As a matter of fact, the pilot at first thought that the lights were reflections off the boats, and it was only after he noticed that the lights were moving northward (the opposite direction the squid boats were traveling) that he knew the object was unnatural.
Another reason that disproves this hypothesis is that no records were found showing that there were any squid boats in Pegasus Bay, where the sightings had taken place. William Ireland, an independent researcher, was unable to find any records. It is important to note that by law, every squid boat has to provide its exact fishing location to the authorities. One final crucial point is that the pilot was making a climb through the clouds to find out whether the lights were reflections off the squid boats, or truly interplanetary aircraft. When the aircraft was flying through the clouds, the pilot noted how the lights climbed to the same altitude, lighting up all surrounding clouds. On multiple occasions, the pilot made turns toward the objects to get a better look at them, however, with each turn, the unidentified flying objects made a parallel opposite turn, proving that an intelligent being was piloting the UFOs and was maneuvering relative to the aircraft’s position. If the lights had truly been reflections, then they would have remained in a stationary position.
Conclusion
This is one of those cases where all of the evidence points to one direction. It has been proven that these lights could not have been squid boats nor any other natural phenomenon. The characteristics of the object, as well as the maneuvers and capabilities, show that an intelligent being was piloting this aircraft. As with the previous cases and as we shall continue to see later on in the book, some certain events cannot be attributed to natural phenomena and the only plausible hypothesis is the extraterrestrial one.
43. John Beloff, “Parapsychology: The Continuing Impasse,” The Journal of Scientific Exploration 1, no.2, (1978): 191–196.
44. Bruce Maccabee, “Analysis and Discussion of the Images of a Cluster of Periodically Flashing Lights Filmed Off the Coast of New Zealand,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 1, no.2 (1987): 152, https://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/volume-1-number-2-1987.
45. New Zealand Defense Force, Investigations of Unidentified and Radar Sightings East Coast South Island, 1987, http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Documents/New%20Zealand/AIR-1080-6-897-Volume-1-1978-1981.pdf.