Zanthus, WA 1968 aircraft encounter - another newspaper article located

Hi all,

Until September 2011 there was no known contemporary newspaper account of the 22 Aug 1968, Zanthus, Western Australia aircraft encounter case. It was only in September last year that I located an article from the Saturday 24 Aug 1968 "The West Australian" newspaper (click here.)

Recently, while reading an old UFO newsletter in the South Australian State Library, I came across a second such newspaper article. According to page 11, of volume 7 number 4 of UFOPIA's magazine "Panorama" published in Adelaide, South Australia, it appeared in the West Australian newspaper "The Daily News" on Friday 23 Aug 1968, the day after the event.

The story:

"Pilot tells of strange UFO.

An unidentified flying object seen by two commercial pilots about 130 miles east of Kalgoorlie yesterday was so vivid that they immediately notified the Civil Aviation Department to safeguard any other aircraft in the area.

Gordon Smith (33) of Wesley Street, Tuart Hills, said he and Walter Gardin of Mill Point Road, South Perth were also concerned about the safety of their own aircraft.

Mr Smith said he was resting in the rear of the cabin at 5.40pm when Mr Gardin called him forward to look at a strange object about 10 miles ahead of them. Mr Gardin had followed the path of the object for about 10 minutes. It first appeared as  a white glow and travelled ahead at the same time and speed as their aircraft. Mr Smith said it was hard to distinguish the shape and size of the object but he likened it to the size of a Boeing 707 at 10 miles.

The main object continued to spilt into two halves and small cigar-shaped objects continually left what he called the mother ship.

The smaller objects, about 6 of them, flew out 3 or 4 miles and then merged back on to the two main parts of the mother ship.

After about 20 minutes the main object took off with the speed of a rocket.

Mr Smith, who has been flying for about 13 years had never seen a UFO before."

Comment:

I checked the Western Australia electoral rolls, and found a Gordon William Smith at 48 Wesley Street, Tuart Hills. He and his wife lived there between 1965 and 1972, but do not appear in any Perth electoral rolls in 1973. I also checked the Perth electoral rolls for 2000 and 2009 but could not locate anyone of this name.