Investigation report - Blue Haven , NSW - 11 May 2015

INVESTIGATION REPORT ON THE 11 MAY 2015, BLUE HAVEN, NEW SOUTH WALES, REPORT.

By Keith Basterfield and Paul Dean -  Version 3 - 31 May 2015

The report:

The initial report came via David Reneke. David passed it on to Paul Dean of Melbourne, who contacted the witness by email.

The witness then supplied the following response by email:

"I am open minded ,and like things explainable if you know what i mean, what i saw was strange and could not work it out , must have been some size for me to see it with the naked eye from a distance, I'm in Blue Haven; on the 11th of May ,2pm just above Wyee a town in NSW Central Coast ,  i was checking the mailbox, and saw a black/ grey object ,had no shape just look like a mass or round ? dark colour, wasn't a plane or helicopter ,and just hovering not moving, then a light flash ,like sunlight on a window and it was gone, went inside to get the camera and binoculars but it was gone ,no sign of anything, the weather was clear no clouds. Checked the web to see if anybody else had seen anything but could not find anything at all.”

A follow up email from Paul Dean asking a number of questions, received the response:

1. Direction of UFO –north.
2. Angular elevation – 30-45 degrees.
3. Any sound? - None.
4. Angular size? –Jumbo plane size. Blob. Round. Grey dark in colour.
5. Duration? – 2 minutes.
6. Other comments? – Saw a flash, like the Sun hitting the window, then gone. “The flash was close to the electricity power lines …but over the lines…the flash was on the left hand side of the object looking north.”

Investigation:

1. Location:

Blue Haven is situated on the Central Coast of New South Wales at latitude 32.20 degrees south and longitude 151.48 degrees east.

2. Weather:

A check of the Bureau of Meteorology website revealed the two nearest stations were:

Station 061412 Lake Macquaries NSW 12.4 kms distant.

Min temp 10.3 deg C; max temp 21.3 deg C. Rain 0.2mm. Max wind gust from the west at 65km/hr at 0611hrs.

At 9am 18.3 deg C; 48% relative humidity; wind from WNW at 11km/hr, 1011.7 hpa.

At 3pm 20.5 deg c; 41% relative humidity; wind from WNW at 20km/hr; 1011.0 hpa.

No details of cloud coverage.

Station 061366 Norah head NSW 12.7km distance.

Min temp 15.2 deg C;Max 21 deg C; 0mm rain; Max wind gust from the west at 48km/hr at 0706hrs.

9am 18.2 deg C; 49% relative humidity; wind from WNW at 11km/hr; 1010.9hpa.

3pm 20.1 deg C; 48% rh; wind from WNW at 17km/hr 1009.9hpa.

No details of cloud coverage.

3. Local paper:

The Gosford, Central Coast, Express Advocate was checked for May 13 and 15^th- the nearest issues. There were no mention of UFO reports. A letter to the editor was published in the newspaper, asking for additional witnesses to this event. No such witnesses contacted the authors.

4. Local radio station:

A check was undertaken of the blog site for radio station 2GO, Gosford. There were no mention of any UFO reports around the 11 May 2015.

5. Local UFO group:

There is a local UFO group run by Joann Kanda, at Tuggerah Lakes, close to the location of Blue Haven. Joann was unaware of this case, and knew of no similar reports from around 11 May 2015.

Joann advised us that:

"...maybe six weeks ago I recall reading the neighbourhood watch fb page and chat site where there had been much discussion about large helicopters in that area and wanting to know what they were. Looked grey from a distance but black and white. Admin eventually intervened and said they were ausgrid helicopters."

6. WebTrak:

Is there any evidence that there was a helicopter in the area at the time? In fact there is. Below is an image taken at 2.08pm on 11 May 2015, from the Air Services Australia WebTrak website which shows secondary radar images recorded at Sydney International airport.

 

The blue symbol is in fact a helicopter, heading north towards Blue Haven, at an altitude of 500 feet.

Analysis:

1. It should be noted that the Blue Haven witness stated that the object was "hovering." Also that the object was close to the electricity power lines. Joann mentioned AusGrid helicopters in the area. AusGrid is a large electricity supply company. They use helicopters to patrol power lines.

2. Joann refers to the colour of the AusGrid helicopters being grey when seen from a distance. The Blue Haven witness says his object was grey, dark.

3. Helicopters do of course make noise. The witness however says there was no sound associated with his object. But hearing noise from a chopper depends on wind direction and distance from the witness.

4.  There was a helicopter in the general area at the time. The following link shows a map of selected areas and scheduled dates for AusGrid helicopter patrols:

http://www.ausgrid.com.au/bushfirepatrols#.VVwvkMuJjIU

5. However, our Sydney research associate contacted AusGrid in Newcastle, and was advised that "records do not show any helicopter patrols in the Wyee/Blue Haven area on 11th May." Thus ruling out an AusGrid helicopter as the cause of the Blue Haven sighting.

6. However, the behaviour of the object, i.e. "hovering"" over the power lines is still suggestive of the possibility that the object might have been a helicopter. We have not been able to identify the helicopter shown on the WebTrak screen. We must, however, note that the witness stated that in his opinion, the object was neither a helicopter nor an aircraft.

7. Our Sydney research associate visited the area of Blue Haven; looked at the location of the power lines; and noted that the area is not on the usual aircraft routes into/out of Sydney. In his view, the object appears not to have been a helicopter or aircraft.  

Conclusion:
 
Based on the information available to us, we have not been able to conclusively ascertain the identity of the object seen at Blue Haven.
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