Videos - field work is important

Hi all,

A while ago, I wrote a post about the large number of Australian "UFO communities" on Facebook.

Since then, I have been visiting a number of these "UFO communities", in order, with the permission of the individual concerned, to collect sightings.

These sightings, which may be a video, together with others submitted by UFO groups, are then compiled into the monthly Australian national level sightings listings. July 2015, will see the publication of the tenth of these listings. After the twelfth, a review will be conducted of their value to the Australian research community. A survey has already been conducted of the individuals who receive the listings by way of an e-mail distribution list.

Are videos of any real value?

One question which was recently directed at me, was "There are numerous individuals in these Facebook communities who go out, with video cameras, take videos and then post them to Facebook or Youtube. Are these of any real value to research?" The person who posed this question then provided their own view by stating "No, they are not. They are frequently out of focus, fail to include any reference points, and often lack details of what was seen visually."



I beg to disagree!

I recall the many nights, years ago, that I spent in the countryside outside Adelaide, watching the skies. I still go out most nights to take a look at what's around.

1. If you don't go out and look, you certainly will not see anything unusual in the skies.
2. If you see something which appears unusual, why not take a video of it?
3. It is true, that some videos are shot without a tripod. It is true, that others have auto focus problems. It is true that some people simply zoom in on the object without including any reference points, such as the horizon. However, some videographers do use a tripod, do use manual focus, and do include reference points. These are of some evidential value.

So, I encourage those members of "UFO communities" who are getting out there to view and video objects in the sky, to continue to do so.

What do they show?

Well,there are a variety of images. There are nocturnal, pulsating lights which change colours. There are daytime, spherical, lights traversing the sky. At first glance they appear mysterious. The descriptions accompanying them tantalise the senses.

However, I need to come back to my investigatory experience. In non-video cases, my analytical experience tells me that, after a competent investigation, 95% of all sightings have a mundane, conventional cause.  I suspect that this is also the case for video sightings, that is, 95% of all videos show common objects, sometimes under unusual circumstances.

My own experience

I'd like to give a few examples from my own observations:

1. I saw and photographed a brilliant, white, spherical light in blue sky, in broad daylight. You couldn't tell what it was from the photograph. A video would simply have added another dimension, namely movement, but you still wouldn't have been able to identify the object. I could, for I had seen it at a closer range before taking the picture. It was a plastic bag.

2. Another time, at night, I saw a cluster of fast moving, lights travel across the night sky. A video would simply have recorded the same as my visual observation. I identified the lights, through binoculars as birds. Zooming in the video may or may not have revealed this.

3. I once saw a brilliant, white, light rise out of a cloud at 5am. A video would have shown just this. If I'd been vague in what direction I saw it, you would not have known it was the planet Venus. The cloud moved, the planet did not.

 I have a number of other such personal observations. If it wasn't for my "sky watching" activities I would not have the knowledge and experience that I have today.

Data

In most of the current crop of videos, as with visual observations, we need an analysis. In order to analyse, we need data. The basic sort of data we need includes:

1. Where was the video taken? Suburb, street etc.
2. In what direction was the camera pointing? East, north-west?
3. What reference points are on the video? For example, the roof of a known house; a street sign; the Moon?
4. Has the videographer also included images taken of stars, planets, the Moon, aircraft etc with the same camera/phone? These are useful for comparison purposes.
5. What are the equipment details? Camera make and model; was auto focus used; what magnification zoom?
6. What was seen by the naked eye. Provide a description of what you saw with your own eyes. Description; behaviour, trajectory.

Summary

So let me summarise, at this point. Individuals who get out and look at the sky, take videos and post them, are to be congratulated and encouraged.

However, these same individuals need to be willing to supply basic data along the lines above. If they do not, then people will continue to criticise them, and quite rightly so.

In future

In my opinion,. what is needed, in these video sightings, is publication of data, and then analysis. Who should do this?

Data publication can only be undertaken by the person who takes the video. If they want others to take their work seriously stop publishing videos showing what is said to be "an amazing ufo" and start publishing information!

Analysis could be provided by independent people, always working hand in hand with the videographer. After all, we are all after the same objective, namely identifying the object shown, and adding to our knowledge of them.

In conclusion

So to conclude this post; get out there; look up at the sky; take a video; document the sighting and help us analyse them.

Investigation report - Oakey, Queensland - 12 June 2015

Date: 12 June 2015
Time: Ca. 0630hrs EST (UTC + 10 hours.)
Location: Oakey, Queensland

Report:

The 12 June 2015 digital issue of the "Toowoomba Chronicle" newspaper carried an article by Meghan Harris. It read:

"FieldEquip employee Greg Young decided to capture the beauty of the sunrise by taking a photo and it wasn't until he zoomed in on his iPhone that he noticed the strange object.

"Mr Young said he looked back up at the sky and noticed the triangular object flying through the clouds followed by a dark blue trail.

"It was all a bit weird because a few moments earlier me and my co-worker saw some bright flashing lights from the East and we couldn't work out what they were," Mr Young said. 

"Then we saw this thing and it just made for a really odd morning. I didm';t believe in aliens or anything like that but it definitely looked like something" he said.

"FieldEquip operations manager Darren Mauger said he did not believe in aliens but he was intrigued by the object. 'I completely disbelieve in aliens and UFOs but I did find it strange," Mr Mauger said. 'Greg came in to show me the photo and by the time I went back outside it was gone.' He said 'it wasn't travelling very fast and was flying silently but it had disappeared within a minute,' he said "

The photograph:

As I could not contact Greg Young to obtain his permission to reproduce his photograph, the best I can do, so blog readers can view the picture, is provide a link to the newspaper article and photograph here:

http://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/ufo-spotted-flying-over-toowoomba-region/2670301/

I would ask that you view the picture, before reading further.


Investigation:

1. I visited the Toowomba Chronicle digital website and viewed the "comments" section which followed the article. Suggestions as to the cause of the image in then photograph included "...probably a dirty smear on his phone camera lens," and "...it's a cloud formation." A person named J. stated "I've got a photo of it and thought it was a cloud too!"

I left my own comment seeking contact with anyone who had any further information.

2. Oakey, Queensland is north-west of Toowoomba. Its latitude is 27.45 degrees south. Its longitude is 151.7 east.

3. Sunrise that day for that location was at 0640hrs EST (UTC + 10 hours.) It rose at azimuth 26 degrees north of east.

4. The nearest weather station is station number 041359 at Oakey (6.6kms away.) At 9am the weather was:
Min 10.6 deg C; max 19.5 degrees C; 0mm rain for the day.
The wind was coming from the ESE at 28km/hr. Pressure 1030.7. Temp was 17.8 degrees C. Relative humid was 59%. Cloud cover was 8/8.

5. I revisited the Toowoomba Chronicle website and submitted a "Letter to the editor" seeking contact with anyone who had information about the photograph.

6. On 12 July 2015, I received an email from the individual named J. She advised that she had two photographs which she herself had taken at about 0625hrs on 12 June 2015 from Oakey, Queensland.

J. duely sent me copies of the photographs and I took the opportunity to ask her the questions below. I have added her responses.

 

Q1. May I ask the name of the street from which you took the shots?
A1. J. provided this, but I am choosing to keep this confidential.

Q2. Did you notice the object in the sky when you took the 2 photos?
A2. Yes.

Q3. At the time what did you think it was?
A3. That it was a cloud shape.

Q4. Did you move between taking the pictures?
A4. Taken about a minute apart. Stepped back to take second photo.

Q5. What was the time interval between the photos?
A5. 1 minute.

Q6. How long did the "object" remain in view to you, or did you go indoors/to work and leave it still visible in the sky?
A6. It was there all the time but had dispersed when I saw it on the way to work a couple of minutes later further down the street,

Q7. Was there any sound associated with the "object."
A7. No sound.

Q8. Have you been in contact with Greg Young?
A8. Never met Greg Young. Sorry.

7. I made efforts to contact Greg Young, through his employer FieldEquip; and through the Toowoomba Chronicle. I was unable to do so. He did not respond to the "Letter to the editor," nor to my comment on the digital site. I did not find a Facebook account nor any other social media contact for him.


Analysis and discussion:

1. I now believed it to be possible to analyse this report on the data available.

2. I now had the location of both photographers that morning.  J. was to the south-west of Young. Both were looking north-east at the time. J and Young were only about two streets apart. This explained why the  "object" is in the same position in all three photographs relative to the background cloud formations, and patches of blue sky.

3. What about the dark blue trail mentioned by Young? It is not visible in his photograph. However, it is clearly visible in both of J."s photographs. It is to the left of the "object." In the Chronicle article, Young is stated to have said " he noticed the triangular object flying through the clouds followed by a dark blue trail." My impression from this is that the suggestion is, that the trail was behind a flying object.

In J's photographs it extends from the left hand edge of each photograph and ends at the "object."

What is this blue line? The trail behind a flying object? Perhaps not. Another better possibility occurs to me. I noticed that if you extend an imaginary line from the trail, and take this line to the right of the photograph it would cross the exact position of where the Sun was rising, still below the horizon at the time the pictures were taken.

So, what do I propose this blue line is? I think it is the shadow of the "object" which is a cloud, thrown to the left of the cloud by the still to rise Sun. This is, of course, a completely different interpretation to that ascribed to Young.

What is interesting is that although Young is cited as thinking the blue line is a trail caused by the object, he only took one photograph. Why didn't he take several photographs, if the object was moving, which would have shown it in different positions,and hence proved it was moving, we will never know. J. did take two photographs one minute apart and the object is clearly stationary.


Conclusion:

1. J's photograph shows that the object was stationary over a minute.
2. J. watched the "object" dispersing, just like a cloud.
3. In J's opinion it was a cloud.
4. My hypothesis is that the "trail" was simply a shadow of a cloud cast by the Sun.
5. Unless additional witnesses or photographs are located, which disprove the above, I conclude that it was a cloud.
6. Naturally, I welcome comments from blog readers, provided they have taken the time to investigate the case.

Note added 26 July 2015.

My Sydney research associate has taken a look at these photographs and offers the following comment:

"I took another look at the photos. I saved J’s UFO 2 photo (which shows more than her other one)

and zoomed it up. Didn’t do any processing with it. I just took another look at GY’s photo as is.

 

I think what might be considered to be a trail is merely the extension of the sunlit reflected pattern of

the cloud layer above it. The more I looked at K’s photos and particularly GY’s photo the more that’s

what it appeared to be. It’s just the positioning of the ‘object’ in relation to it the cloud pattern above it,which is at higher altitude,  that makes it look like the ‘trail’ is from the object itself. The wavy pattern that seems to indicate it is even more apparent in GY’s photo. Sunlight is falling though at some angle though on the right hand side of the ‘object’ as can be seen in both GY’s and J’s photo(s).

 

I couldn’t see how the shadow from it could be from the sun considering the low angle the sun was. The shadow if there was one is pointing in the wrong direction, due the very low position of the sun. But it’s true that the appearance and direction of the ‘shadow’ is influenced by the sense of perspective as seen from the ground so that’s a consideration nonetheless.

 

The only way I can see it being at the downward angle it is as if the sun light was refracted through the cloud (the ‘object’) That might be possible. (?) Alternatively, it’s from sunlight reflection from the base of the cloud above it,but from looking at the photo even that doesn’t look likely. So I think that one  can be eliminated.

 

On that basis I don’t see how it could be a shadow from the sun directly. The angle looks all wrong. So that leaves the ‘shadow’ must be merely an extension of the sunlit reflection of the cloud above it. It’s just the positioning of the ‘object’ in relation to it that makes it look like it’s from the ‘object’ itself. Note the ‘shadow’ doesn’t extend entirely from the entire length of the base of the ‘object’. It is from the right hand end but stops short of the left hand end. That detail to my mind tends to convince me the trail is merely an extension of the sunlight reflection of the cloud above it, and not related to the ‘object’ itself.

 

I don’t think there’s any doubt the ‘object’ is a cloud, the same as J thought and you did as well."

UAP and satellite re-entries

Hi all,

One of the reports on the recently obtained Western Australia Police Department file (click here) occurred in October 1974, and caught the eye of Ted Molczan, an amateur astronomer. Ted is particularly interested in artificial satellites, and the observations of satellite re-entries.

Over the past three years Ted has been compiling a table of sightings of natural re-entries of orbiting objects. Interestingly, as Ted pointed out to me, "UFO reports have proven a goldmine of previously unknown re-entry sightings. For example, UFO sighting reports in Australian government archives yielded more than a dozen previously unknown re-entry sightings."

As mentioned above, Ted was specifically interested in the October 1974 sighting, dated 14 Oct 1974 on the file which was "...exactly 24 hours earlier than a re-entry I previously identified that had been reported as a UFO from Fitzroy Crossing, WA and Katherine, NT. The object was the Agena D upper stage (1966-110B/2609)from the launch of ATS1..."

I forwarded Ted a copy of the Police Department file in order that he could read the original documents. He later replied that he found evidence on the file that the 14 October date was incorrect and that the UFO sightings probably happened on 15 October. Ted ended his thorough analysis with "Despite the noted imperfections, the overall agreement with the known re-entry trajectory and the appearance of a re-entry fireball is strong."



Ted kindly sent me the latest version  (27 pages) of his "Visually observed Natural Re-entries of Earth Satellites" table. The table contains numerous examples of UAP reports caused by satellite re-entries over Australia. I am currently cross checking this table against my catalogues of Australian UAP.

Update 10 August 2015:

I asked Ted whether or not the following sightings might be of a re-entry?

19 July 2006 Wirrabara Forest to Quorn and Hawker SA 1330hrs DO/IFO?

“So was it a meteorite or space junk falling to earth? No one knows. But at 1.30pm in the afternoon of July 19, many people across the Mid North of South Australia - from Wirrabara Forest to Quorn and Hawker saw a large object moving across the sky. One witness, John Teague was at Hawker in the Flinders Ranges. He was pumping tyres when something caught his eye. "I thought it was a flare. It was the colour of mercury and had a tail and there were sparks coming from it. Then it seemed to break up and disintegrate." He said it was large, not as large as a full moon, "more like a cricket ball," he said. About four minutes after it disappeared, John heard a "sonic boom". He said, "It was really loud, like thunder". The seismographs at Hawker and Wilpena registered the boom as a disturbance. David Love, seismologist with the Department of Primary Industries and Resources in Adelaide confirmed that equipment "at Hawker and Wilpena recorded the same thing". "What we've recorded is a soundwave coming somewhere south of Hawker, whether its south west or south east is a bit hard to tell." He said they haven't got enough case studies to compare this sound with a sonic boom from a jet. And this is complicated further because the disturbance detection instruments are in the ground. So will property owners in the area during the weeks and months ahead find space junk or meteorite fragments? From what the seismographs indicated, David Love concluded, "If anything did hit the ground, it wasn't large". So what was it? The United States Space Command in Colorado said "there was no scheduled re-entry of any spacecraft or satellite." The CSIRO, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Australian Air Force at the Keswick Barracks, all said they knew nothing about it. The Astronomical Society in South Australia is keen to hear from any witnesses so they can determine what it may have been.” (Source: Annette Marner http://www.abc.net.au/sa/stories/s1692314.htm?backyard.)

Ted's response was as follows:

"Probably not a re-entry. None were expected at the time and I have yet to find a confirmed credible daylight sighting of a re-entry. Typical objects reach about mag -8 at 100km which might be detectable to the naked eye if the observer knew where to look, but not by chance sighting. A huge object like one of the space stations, would be visible."

Investigation report - Chinderah, New South Wales - 10 July 2015

Date: 10 July 2015.
Time: 1850-1900hrs. EST (UTC + 10 hours.)
Location: Chinderah, New South Wales.

Account:

A woman, her brother, three friends of the brother, and her mother, were travelling in one vehicle, southwards from Tweed Heads on the main highway.

They spotted "...two very large orb lights in the sky to our right...At first I thought it was Venus and Jupiter, then realised they were too big and moving...They were moving diagonally  down, then started moving horizontally looking like they were flying right towards us. They then moved across the highway and behind Chinderah petrol station.

"Myself and my brother's friend were the only ones who could view them while they hovered and moved slowly behind the trees on our left hand side of the highway. There were several cars who seemed to view it also and they all pulled into the petrol station at once and stopped on the turn off at the highway.

"The orbs then headed south again travelling the way they were and then they were right in view on the left hand side of the car about 100-200 metres above us (mine and my brother's friend's side.)

"They started to cross back over to the right side of the highway and hovered directly above our car whilst we were going about 70km. The first orb manifested itself into a craft that I have randomly found a hand drawn picture that was posted 5 days ago that describes what Dane and I saw exactly. The other people in the car did not see the full craft because it was hovered over the car more on our side.

"It moved very slow, and the second orb light was about 100 metres behind the craft. The craft then manifested into the orb again and both of them continued in the direction they were currently flying."

"We drove to Pottsville (20km) and dropped off one of the kids off and decided to go back to the petrol station on the coast road to ask if anyone else saw what we saw. On the way, I'm Cabarita Beach. I noticed there were many planes in the sky at once and they weren't moving like planes. They were in a triangle shape with blue white and red lights at each point and there were 7 at the sky at once.

"I focused on one in particular, that then disappeared in front of my eyes."




The location - courtesy of Google maps.



Additional information:

I asked the main witness, the following questions. Her responses are below.

Q1. What colour were the orbs?
A1. "They were the colour of a warm light or torch. The same colour as the orb light in the picture from Byron Bay but much brighter because they were much closer."

Q2. What was the weather like at the time?
A2. "It had been raining on and off, that was also the strange thing. Upon both sightings it seemed that the whole sky cleared up out of nowhere. There appeared to be no clouds when it had just been raining seconds before. This happened both times in Chinderah and Cabarita and we all commented on that at the time. There was absolutely no sound coming off any of the flying objects even when the first  orbs (craft) were only 100-200 metres above our heads which made the weather and stillness even eerier."

Q3. Can you estimate how long it was between the time you first saw them and when they went behind the petrol station?
A3. Around 1 kilometre. The whole sighting went for approximately 3 kilometres. It felt much longer time wise. The orbs were also below tree height at this time."

Q4. Who was driving and who was sitting in which seats?
A4. "My mother was driving. I was in the front passenger seat. Dane, my brother's friend was in the back seat behind me. My brother Ryan in the middle back seat and Tom was in the back seat behind the driver's seat. There was also a girl named Alison in the back back seat, back of my mother's 4 wheel drive. She did not seem interested in the experience at all and just kept talking like nothing was happening and said they must be just planes."

Q5. Did the driver speed up or slow down from the 70km/hr?
A5. "Mum (Maree) slowed down from 110km to 70km upon first sighting and kept at that speed until we got to the petrol station turn off at the highway. She went to pull in so slowed down to around 30km and then decided there was too many people turning off and stopping on the road and it may be dangerous. She veered back onto the highway and sped back up to 70km, when I realised they were directly to our left of the car. So she was probably actually going slower than that but speeding up to 70km again."

The location, courtesy of Google Earth.

Q6. Can you describe the process by which it changed from orb (light) to craft?
A6. "It didn't really manifest I don't think, the orb lights were still there just on the 3 points of the craft like the picture describes. I think just because it was on the right angle for Dane and I to actually see the craft, we saw the portholes that looked like plane windows but it was too thick to be a plane and wasn't in the same shape ( we also had blimps in the area flying around that day, and that's what I kept referencing to people. It was like a medium 24 seater passenger plane/blimp/drone/small spaceship all of them put together.) It seemed to me to be open on the side, but the hand drawn picture paints a better picture of what it looked like then explaining it as the picture really does look completely identical.

A hand drawn sketch which the main witness found on the Internet, which she says shows what her "craft" looked like.



"It was dark but the orb lights gave off enough light to see the middle of it, and the portholes or windows had lights coming out of them too as a plane does, but brighter as they so turn the lights down on planes. These were brighter. All warm lights. If I had to say a colour of the craft itself it would have been white/silver/something but definitely not dark - that's why my brain kept going back to it looking like a plane."

Q7. What compass direction did they leave in?
A7. "When we last saw them they were going in the direction of north-west, or maybe south-west, I'm not exactly sure. But it was in a westerly flight path."

Q8. How did you lose sight of them? What was the last thing you saw?
A8. "I couldn't see the first one (that was the craft) while it was going over our car, was still in view of the second orb that was following it. Was concentrating more on trying to look out the right side window to see the craft once again but once it came into my vision again it was an orb again. Then the highway veers left so we lost view. The last thing I saw was the two orbs travelling slowly west heading towards the Tweed River."

"My mother Maree, said she never saw the craft but distinctly saw the orb lights the whole 3 kilometres. She was the first to actually say what's that although we were all looking at them anyway. Tom on the right hand side of the car in the back seat and Alison in the back back of the car were not looking up much and all us I think were quite frightened and just kept saying its a plane. It must be a plane (they were only 15.) While I explained to them that it defies physics. The only thing I could  come up with was maybe drones but have researched into that and purely by the size of the first one sighted (orb and craft) it was an equivalent of a bomber drone and I'm sure they wouldn't be flying them above civilians so low."

An image from a local newspaper which shows what the main witness says, the orbs looked like.

Q9. What was the total time duration from when you first saw them to when  you last saw them?
A9. "Approximately 3 kilometres."

Q10. At its closest approach when you saw the first orb as a craft, how big was it across, say compared to the full Moon?
A10. "The orb when it was at its closest was a lot bigger than a full moon probably three times the size of the moon that is rising. On first seeing it when they were further away, the first one was the size of a full moon then."

Q11. Was there any effect on the vehicle you were travelling in? For example, did you have a radio on?
A11. "No, unfortunately we didn't have the radio on and nobody thought to get their phone out, because we were too busy watching. All I know is outside was dead silent except the cars earlier. There was no sound at all, not even after effect sound."


Analysis and discussion:

1. Was the "craft" a blimp?

The main witness mentioned "blimps" in the area at one point in her account. I determined that there is one, and only one, blimp flying in Australia at the moment. I found that the Appliances online blimp transited the area, and actually passed over Chinderah on 10 July 2015.

The Appliances on line blimp.

This airship is 39 metres long and 11 metres wide. It is illuminated from within by two 1000 light globes. It usually travels at 1000 feet altitude, and its maximum speed is approximately 72km/hr, which would mean that if it was flying at this speed above a car travelling at 70km/hr, it would appear to be hovering over that vehicle. It would perhaps seem a contender for the "craft."

I contacted the owners of the airship and asked them if it had been over Chinderah at about 1900 hours on 10 July 2015. Their answer was no! It left Brisbane at 0720hrs; passed over Chinderah at 11226hrs and arrived for the night at Evans head at 1728hrs where it was moored. It did not fly that evening.

This blimp can therefore be excluded from the range of possible conventional explanations for the sighting.

2. Was any part of the sighting due to aircraft?

I visited the Air Services Australia WebTrak website for Coolangatta airport, to the north of Chinderah. It turns out that Coolangatta's secondary radar covers the Chinderah area. Only aircraft (including helicopters) fitted with a transponder, show up on secondary radar.

I ran the program between 1800 and 200 hours on 10 July 2015. The only objects visible on this radar were aircraft arriving and departing Coolangatta (no helicopters) and aircraft transiting the area.

The above two images are screen shots from WebTrak. Two different aircraft passed right over Chinderah at the times shown, at a height of about 2000 feet. These times correspond to the main witness' time of 1850 to 1900 hours.

These aircraft, of course, should have been showing the standard red and green navigation lights plus anti-collision lights. These aircraft colours are different to the colours reported by the main witness.

3. Was any part of the observation due to the planets Venus and Jupiter?

According to the "Heavens Above" website Venus was at an elevation of 14.5 degrees, azimuth 292.3 degrees. Jupiter was at elevation 10.7 degrees, azimuth 293.1 degrees.

Courtesy of the "heavens Above" website.

Both planets, during the estimated 3-5 minutes duration of the sighting would have only moved 0.75 degrees across the sky. This does not agree with the main witness' observation of the trajectory of the "orbs" or description of the "craft."

4. Could the sighing have been due to a combination of things?

For example, were Venus and Jupiter initially seen; then aircraft lights were behind the petrol station? Based on the main witness' description of trajectory and appearance, I suspect not.

5. Could it have been a drone?

One of my associates asked "Could it have been a drone?" The close-up observation of the "craft"; even if not as close as the estimated 100-200 metres stated by the main witness,  would suggest not. However, with today's technology one cannot be 100% certain.  I can say that I have not come across anyone claiming to have staged the sighting using a drone.

6. Any other ideas?
We seemed to have ruled out Venus and Jupiter; aircraft (including helicopters) with transponders; the Appliances online airship, and in all probability a drone. This leaves me bereft of suggested conventional explanations which fit the details provided.. Naturally, I would be delighted to hear from anyone who has a proposed mundane explanation, provided they can back it up with evidence.


Conclusion:

Based on the information provided by the main  witness, of the objects' trajectory, appearance, and behaviour, I cannot assign a conventional explanation, at the moment, to this sighting.

July 2015 - Australian monthly reports roundup

Hi all,

This is the tenth in an initial twelve monthly series of Australian national level sightings listings. Regular readers will be aware that most of these reports are in raw format; meaning that they have not been investigated.

Survey

Last month we circulated a questionnaire asking readers to consider what value the listings were to them. Thank you to those who responded. The consensus was that the lists are of value to people, and that people would like to read both raw and investigated reports. However, the preparation of the listings has been taking up quite a bit of our time, with part  of the work being a constant review of Australian Facebook pages reporting sightings, and videos submitted to YouTube,. Both of these sources provide a frustrating experience when trying to extract even the most basic of data points. Thus this listing should not be seen as a comprehensive source of Australian sightings.

After production of the twelfth in the series, we will then be in a position to decide on the future of the listings.

Sighting of the month

10 July 2015 (1850-1900) hrs Chinderah, New South Wales  3-5mins Investigated
A 24 year old woman, her little brother and three of his friends, and her mother, were travelling south from Tweed Heads on the highway. They spotted "...two very large orb lights in the sky to our right...At first I thought it was Venus and Jupiter then realised they were too big and moving...They were moving diagonally down then started moving horizontally looking like they were flying right towards us. They then moved across the highway and behind Chinderah petrol station.

"Myself and my brother's friend were the only ones who could view them while they hovered and moved slowly behind the trees on our left hand side of the highway. There were several cars who seemed to view it also and they all pulled into the petrol station at once and stopped on the turn off at the highway...

"The orbs then headed south again travelling the way they were and then they were right in view on the left hand side of the car about 100-200 metres above us (mine and my brother's friend's side.)

"They started to cross back over to the right side of the highway and hovered directly above out car whilst we were going about 70km. The first orb manifested itself into a craft that I  have randomly found a hand drawn picture that was posted 5 days ago that describes what Dane and I saw exactly. The other people in the car did not see the full craft because it was hovered over the car more on our side.

"It moved very slow, and the second orb light was about 100 metres behind the craft. The craft then manifested into the orb again and both of them continued in the direction they were currently flying.

"We drove to Pottsville (20kms) and dropped off one of the kids off and decided to go back to the petrol station on the coast road to ask if anyone saw what we saw. On the way, I'm Cabarita Beach. I noticed there were many planes in the sky at once and they weren't moving like planes. They were in a triangle shape with blue white and red lights at each point and there were 7 at the sky at once,
I focused on one in particular that then disappeared in front of my eyes.

"I have pictures of a sighting in Byron last year that is the same as the first sighting with the orbs, but ours were much closer. I then have the hand drawn picture that describes the craft to a T and the drawing underneath describes the second sighting perfectly as well with the triangles. "

Read the full investigation report at:
 http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/investigation-report-chinderah-new.html

Update

 

12 June 2015 0630hrs Oakey, Queensland 1 min Raw FieldEquip employee Greg Young took a sunrise photograph on his iPhone, after looking at the sky and seeing a triangular object flying through clouds. He showed the photo to fellow employee Darren Mauger. Mauger went outside but saw nothing unusual. The newspaper article shows the photo.
http://m.thechronicle.com.au/news/ufo-spotted-flying-over-toowoomba-region/2670301

 

Keith Basterfield contacted UFO Research (Queensland) to determine if they had researched this case, they had not. He then asked, given that the location was in Queensland if it was alright for him to follow it up? UFOR(Qld) responded that this was ok with them. An investigation was conducted and the full investigation report may be read at:

http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/investigation-report-oakey-queensland.html

 



July sightings

2 July 2015 1911hrs Townsville, Queensland 1 hour Raw
Walking home, a witness saw "...very bright lights hovering in the sky." After an hour "...it had moved a bit to the left."
http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=search_page

3 July 2015 1915hrs Sydney, New South Wales ? mins Raw
Peter Gianfrancesco reported that while looking north-east over Little Bay, Sydney, he "...saw a large object brightly illuminated in the sky. It was heading in a downward trajectory, most likely travelling north-north-west." Sky was clear. Bright white light seen at first which became a "...rough cigar shape, almost like a dirty potato." There was a smoke trail behind it.
http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

3 July 2015 2213hrs Near Nirimba, New South Wales 16mins Raw
Looking out a window witness saw a "...large bright red light in the distance." No sound. "...it began to descend slowly toward the state forest...in the direction of Huskisson. It appeared to lose brightness and size as it sank out of sight." A second or the same light was seen "...at around the same altitude and sat stationary...the second appearance of the red light disappeared (as though turned off) - no descent."
http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=search_page

4 July 2015 1850hrs Snug, Tasmania 4 mins Facebook Telephone IFO? Balloon?
A bright fireball like light appeared from the south-west. It gradually moved to a position overhead. The witness said it now seemed to be made up of four lights. Almost at once they all faded out and nothing more could be seen. Most likely a hoax balloon device.
TUFOIC.

4 July 2015 2100hrs Scarborough, Redcliffe, Queensland 2-3mins Raw
"At first I thought it was 2 planes heading towards the Brisbane airport as they were low in the sky over the top of buildings. And then about 2-3 minutes later I look up in the sky and see 4 of the exactly same orange dots and they were slowly moving across the night sky exiting the earths  atmosphere until they were no longer visible by the naked eye."
Shannon Bain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVDIxf8dLU0

5 July 2015 0400hrs East Gippsland, Victoria ? mins Raw
"Very strange thing happened to me. I was driving along the highway at about 4.00 am in East Gippsland, Victoria. There were no other cars on the road or any nearby houses/buildings. All of a sudden a massive bright white light was in front of me. I thought it was a helicopter with its spotlight on but a helicopter driver wouldn't"t be as stupid to shine a light directly in front of a driver's car even near a large highway. It kept coming towards me so I started to hit the brakes. For a split second I was thinking it was a small plane crash landing on me. It hovered for a minute or two about 10-20 metres from the ground, with the light still beaming. Then it seemed to take off on a diagonal up into the sky and disappeared. I've never seen such a thing."
Although we submitted a request, via the website, to the witness to contact us, we have heard nothing from them.
http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

5 July 2015 1910hrs Watsonia, Melbourne, Victoria 2m53s
A 2m 53s video by Brad Morris. "This could be our long awaited red pulsar. Filmed over Watsonia, also witnessed from the eastern suburbs at the same time."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wkHDvpOYK8

6 July 2015 2100hrs Bracken Ridge, Brisbane, Queensland? mins Investigated
A woman was driving with her friend and 2 children in the car when the oldest child (age 10) saw something in the sky and brought it to her mother's attention. It was a large globe of light that came lower to the ground and then followed it for 6 to 7kms. It moved over the road then over adjacent bushland in a "slippery-slide" movement, before settling on the ground in the bushland.

The woman got out of her car and walked to the fence line of the bushland trying to see the light on the ground through the trees. She described the light emanating from the object as covering an area smaller than a car.

She then 'got the feeling' there would be more objects further down the street so she walked to where she thought they would be and she saw two  more on  the ground in the bushland.

She described the lights as yellow at the bottom and blue at the top. As it was very dark the witness didn't walk into the bush but returned the next day with her friend, however she didn't find anything. Two of our team visited the area in daylight with the witness soon after the report but failed to find any ground traces or hoax devices at the scene.
UFO Research (Queensland.)

7 July 2015 ?hrs Coffs Harbour, New South Wales ? mins Raw
While looking east, Jean reported seeing"...a triangular shape with the point at the top. It had a light at each point of a gray triangle shape, all the 3 pulsating lights were different colours, not all white...It came from the north...and went towards the south and veered off to the east...It was not a plane, nor a helicopter..."
http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/2007/report-a-sighting/

Outside looking for the ISS to go over. Facing east "...suddenly a triangle shaped 'craft' appeared over the top of my house...came from behind trees...Three pulsating lights...in a triangle shape, yellowy green and then white. Very bright and flashed sequentially...It hovered for about 5 seconds, then shot off south for a little way (about 2 secs) then banked east towards the airport...and disappeared...It moved vertically, not horizontally...There was no sound at all...was not a plane nor a helicopter nor a drone (unless deathly silent) but did not look like a drone...My son (on the balcony of the house and unable to see it)...I was at the top of my driveway on a hill...The colour looked as though it was black with grey edges. It was a definite triangle."
http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=search_page

Ca. 8 July 2015 Evening Mole Creek, Tasmania Facebook IFO? Reflection/flare?
A motorist took pictures of bright full Moon to the west. Later noticed two small lights in the picture. One at the top and a second duller light in the centre. Most likely reflection or lens flare.
TUFOIC.

10 July 2015 2158hrs Joondanna, Western Australia 1min IFO - aircraft
Alan observed "...what I took to be a satellite -small starlike object moving due west...it passed near the southern cross...However, as I watched, the aircraft running lights suddenly came on and the aircraft then turned sough-west. I thought that to be unusual...While I am not reporting a UFO per se, I did not know who else to ask. I simply believed it to be an unusual aircraft practice."
ACERN.

15 July 2015 1010hrs Coolaroo, NNE Melbourne, Victoria 2mins 27secs Video
"Amazing object filmed above Coolaroo, tried to capture it on the Nikon but failed to find it again, possible identification at" https://www.youtube.com/watchv=wGdN_p1udUs&feature=youtube_gdata
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_f3fqyb2Ow Filmed by Brad Morris.

16 July 2015 0515hrs Perth, Western Australia  ?mins Personal observation
Witness, Amanda,  was travelling south on Roe Highway from the airport. She noticed a light in the sky over Armadale direction. "...it looked like four white lights spread across the wind span of  a plane, but it went bright, then dim, bright then dim....I watched it head south-east to north-west and it got closer and closer to the highway...when it got closer it started flashing green, red and believe it or not a purple? lights that lit up the underneath of the craft ...It w triangular with a red light emitting from one corner...no sound..."
Perth UFO Casebook Facebook page.

18 July 2015 2100hrs Lewisham, Tasmania 1 mins Facebook Telephone IFO - balloons
Four flare like lights noticed rising one after the other in the northern sky. They moved across towards the east and after  minute each light seems to go out or fade into the distance. Hoax balloons.
TUFOIC.

18 July 2015 2250hrs North of Bundoora, NE Melbourne, Victoria several mins Video
"Stunning night time. morphing triangle. Object appeared to be high altitude at a distance north. Filmed x2 cameras, both manual focus." 7mins 20secs video at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWSTye2Fr2A

19 July 2015 1413hrs Bundoora, NE Melbourne, Victoria 1min 50secsVideo
Video of a daylight high altitude sphere, flashing. Camera on tripod. Headed south-east.. Taken by Brad Morris. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Vw8A7CVfg

21 July 2015 0634hrs Albany, Australia ? mins Raw
"Woke up and had a coffee around 6:20 proceeded to go outside onto my veranda, looked up at the horizon as the sunrise was beautiful then noticed a huge red orb sitting on the horizon a fair way away from the sun, it then sped off in a right direction stopped almost instantly, changed from red to blue in a split second then shot up into the clouds at supersonic speed."
http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=search_page

21 July 2015 1045hrs Near Hobart, Tasmania  several mins Telephone interview Under investigation
An employee noticed a strange light on a security monitor screen. Going outside the witness could not locate anything in the sky to explain the light. Returning to the monitor the light was seen to move erratically over several minutes. Eventually it looked to stop, go grey, then move off at speed. As the monitor has no recording facility the witness took some pictures of the screen with a mobile phone. Investigation yet to be finalised.
TUFOC.

24 July 2015 2130hrs Melbourne, Victoria ?mins Raw
"The craft was silent and flying south/west to south/east. What is it - plane, drone or UFO?" Video- 16 mins 32 secs, posted at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBCa0WNLLZo

25 July 2015 Late afternoon Ocean Beach, New South Wales 2mins Raw
Gloria noticed "...an object flying from SSW to NNE. About a minute later, a small plane flew very fast circled from north to south so it intercepted the flying plane or object, narrowly missed it, up ahead to the south over the water. In the time it took to blink my eyes in surprise, the object had disappeared without a trace."
Tuggerah Lakes UFO Group Facebook page.

28 July 2015 (1900-1930)hrs Berwick, Melbourne, Victoria 5mins Raw
A woman reported that her family saw an "...orange ball of light in the night sky." Stationary for 5 minutes then "...zoomed off within a second and disappeared into the atmosphere...It was in th direction  of Tooradin...it kept going really bright orange colour to a dull orange then really bright every second."
VUFOA.

Older reports

28 June 2015 1530hrs Umina Beach, Queensland ? mins
Two ladies, Adrianne and Gloria saw, "...a round white object flying around Lion Island, that looked like a white ball from where we were at Umina beach. It was darting off in all directions like a UFO and took off over Palm beach area in the end. It was down really low." Adrianne added "It went up and down high so u cd see it then lower and it was not on a straight trajectory. Finally it flew off at a sloping kind of angle towards past Palm beach then lost sight." Gloria added "It was far too big to be a drone of any kind...I first saw it circling Lion Island and pointed it out to Adrianne who was with me when it began flying more erratically; not like a plane...it was flying fairly low over the island, maybe 50 metres up."
Tuggerah Lake UFO Group Facebook page.

18 July 2014 0310hrs Narrabeen, Sydney, New South Wales 1.5 mins Raw
A man was woken by loud crackling noises. He opened his eyes and saw the lounge room lit up with white light seeming to come  from outside. He got out of bed and opened the drapes to see about 12 objects in his yard that were close to the ground, circular and looked like wagon wheels with radiating spokes. They ranged from approx. 4 to 2 feet  in diameter (120-60cm), were flashing like strobe lights, and the "spokes of the wheel" were radiating a blue/grey light. he watched the objects for a good 90 seconds as they lit up his entire front yard, then split up into three groups. They moved between his property and the next two properties in the street before silently moving down to street level then they regrouped and "poof" they were gone. The "wheels" looked 2 dimensional as they easily passed through a Jacaranda tree on the witness' property. The witness felt they were living beings.
UFO Research (Queensland.)

1995 2000hrs The Entrance, New South Wales ?mins Under investigation
"I was sitting with a friend on a headland at The Entrance, north of Sydney, Australia looking east over the ocean. It was around 8pm and we were there at random - we went for a drive to visit some relatives up that way. All of a sudden the sky in front of us seemed to "shudder," as if something was entering the airspace. My friend reacted like I did - about to run. I said "Did you see that!" In front of us was a gigantic craft- it would have been over 1km wide, & the aspect was the same as if you looked at a jet from the front. It looked like a pyramid on its side, looking up at the point. We could just make out the right angles. The thing was silent, and we felt rather eerie, & got the hell out of there. Interestingly, around that time there were multiple sightings of smaller craft reported but as far as I now we were the only witnesses to this thing."
UFO Research (NSW) Incorporated.

Australian groups contributing to this issue

ACERN Website: http://www.acern.com.au

Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre
Website: http://tufoic.eu.pn

Tuggerah Lake UFO group:
Facebook page.

UFO Research (NSW) Incorporated.
Website: http://www.ufor.asn.au

UFO Research (Queensland)
Hotline: 07 3376 1780
Website: http://uforq.asn.au
Facebook page.

VUFOA
Hotline: 0456 447 112
Website: http://www.vufoa.com
Facebook page:

Note: The US based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) collects reports from Australia but does not provide public details of their investigation reports of these sightings.

The mystery of classified file 1969/4393

Hi all,

In a recent post (click here) about "Unidentified Flying Objects and mysterious happenings in Papua New Guinea," I mentioned that a number of papers on National Archives of Australia (NAA) file series A452 control symbol 1969/4393, were missing according to a count of the folio numbers. These papers amounted to almost 20% of the file I received from the NAA.

On the track of the missing papers:

I submitted a request to the NAA asking "How I may submit a request to access the "classified" part of file series A452 control symbol 1969/4393?"

On 14 July 2015, William Edwards of the NAA advised me that "The file as it exists in our collection, has been fully opened. No material  on the file has been withheld, so what you see in the digitised copy is the full extent of the material it contains.

"Page two of the digitised copy includes a hand written note stating "confidential part file cancelled 15/2/71." I assume this means that part of the file was destroyed in 1971 while it was in the custody of the controlling agency, the Department of External Territories.

"I will consult the Department's file registration and movement cards for the period to see if I can find any more information about this cancellation of confidential material."

On 15 July 2015 William Edwards advised "I have checked the file movement cards from series A1250 that refers to file 1969/4393. It doesn't really tell us much, but I have attached a scan of the card to this message."

The scanned card, lists files in the series 69 4381-4395. Control symbols 4392, 4393, and 4394 are all originally "classified" with no file titles showing. However, for 4393 the word "classified" has been crossed out and the words "UFO & mysterious happenings in PNG" have been written in.

I checked NAA's RecordSearch database and there is nothing there for control symbol 4392. However, control symbol 4394 formerly "classified" according to the record card, is on RecordSearch with the title "Discussions between Nauru and Partner governments under terms of Nauru Phosphate agreement."

So what happened to the missing pages on 4393?

In short, we do not know. One can speculate that they were correspondence with the USAF, the UK government, or were Australian Security Intelligence Organisation documents, but we will never know.

Experiencers and "exploding head syndrome."

Hi all,

Some background:

Over the years, I have interviewed dozens of experiencers. Some of them have mentioned unusual events which occur on the sleep/awake interface. They will be lying in bed, and suddenly hear a tremendously loud sound; or see a flash of light in their darkened room, or occasionally feel a wave of heat pass through their bodies.

These events then become integrated into other unusual events, which happen to them, which they may interpret as being part of their UAP/alien experiences. However, there may just be a conventional explanation for these kind of events.

In the July/August 2015 (vol. 36, no.6) issue of the magazine "Australasian Science," writer Tim Hannon, on page 40, reports on  "Exploding Head Syndrome."

The article:

In part the article reads:

"In recent years the neuropsychological literature has been awash with reports of people describing strange experiences when going to sleep. Many of those have described hearing sudden inexplicable noises; such as unseen bombs exploding nearby, thunderclaps on cloud-free nights, or a gun fired in their bedroom by an invisible intruder. At times these sounds are accompanied by flashes of light, or by physical sensations such as intense heat."

"While some people are convinced that these explosions are real, most others acknowledge that, since they are not heard by others, the sounds must have occurred inside their own heads.

"Some have concluded that these noises must be the work of invisible agents such as aliens or poltergeists, or a government agency testing mind-control weapons...neurological investigation suggest that the episodes are symptoms of a condition labelled exploding head syndrome which may be more common than previously assumed...The neurological mechanisms responsible for exploding head syndrome are not well understood...The dominant theory implicates the reticular formation, a set of connected nuclei distributed through the brainstem, which is one of several neural systems regulating the body's transition between sleep and wakefulness..."

Hannon's article cites the recent work of Brian Sharpless, Department of Psychology, Washington State University as published in J. Sleep Res. (2015 - click here.)

Knowledge researchers need:

I have long maintained, that UAP researchers who work with experiencers need to have a basic knowledge of a number of areas of abnormal psychology (click here) , physiology (click here) and neurology (click here.). These include the topics of hypnagogic and hypnopompic imagery (click here); sleep paralysis (click here;) and fantasy prone personality (click here ); and false awakenings (click here.)

Pauline Wilson's blog posts:

For the background to the possible relationship between UAP experiencers and fantasy-prone personality by Adelaide based researcher, Pauline Wilson, please click here. For citations to seven published scientific studies on the topic, and further discussion click here.

For Pauline's take on hypnagogic imagery click here.

In summary:

I am not saying that these areas explain the totality of experiencer's accounts, but that parts of experiencers' stories are so similar to these areas of existing knowledge, that researchers need to take current scientific research into account, when trying to interpret the accounts of an experiencer.

Additional information - "Unidentified Flying Objects and mysterious happenings in Papua New Guinea."

Hi all,

I'd like to add some further information to a post I published yesterday, which will provide additional background for readers.

Why did these reports come to Australia?

The file I recently found, National Archives of Australia (NAA) file series A452, control symbol 1969/4393, originated with an Australian government Department, namely the "Department of Territories." (DOT) Papua New Guinea (PNG) was an administered external territory of Australia, between 1949 and 1975. Hence this is why sightings occurring in Papua New Guinea, during that time, were forwarded to the Australian Department of Territories.

Additional files

Dozens of documents referring to UAP sightings in PNG have previously been found by the author, on NAA file series. Most are to be found on file series A703, control symbol 580/1/1 which is the main RAAF sighting reports file series parts 1-35.

I also located copies of such reports, on  NAA files:

1.  "Unidentified aircraft Papua and New Guinea" file series MT1131/1 control symbol A31/1/133, date range 1958-1959, owned by the Department of the Army.

2.  "New Guinea FIR - Operation of unidentified and foreign aircraft" file series MP1279/1, control symbol 99/1/478, date range 1948-1965, owned by the Department of Civil Aviation.

3. In the previous post, I also found that copies of the memos from the Administrator, PNG, were also being sent to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO.) I located a CSIRO file in the NAA, file series A8520 control symbol HM1/30 titled "Miscellaneous enquiries - general - UFOs" with a date range of 1959-1990.

On this file I found copies of correspondence between DOT and the CSIRO. The CSIRO, for its part, simply seemed to file these documents and take no action themselves on the details contained therein. I have written a lengthy piece on the involvement of the CSIRO and UAP (click here.)

Digital copies of all three of the above files may be located and read, via the NAA website at (click here.)

I have also seen hard copies of documents on yet another file, owned by the DOT, with a date range of 1958-1970, titled "Flights by unidentified aircraft over PNG." No digital copy available.

There are probably more such files, if researchers would care to look; get them examined and then pay to have them digitised.

USAF ATIC involvement

In 2004, in Newsletter 18 of the Disclosure Australia Newsletter (click here), I wrote a detailed article on sightings from PNG,  which includes further details on the involvement of the USAF ATIC in Dayton, Ohio, and their conclusion as to the cause of some of the sightings.

I hope readers will find the above material of interest. It is historical material, but in my opinion, very much of value.

"Unidentified Flying Objects and mysterious happenings in Papua New Guinea" - a file emerges

Hi all,

Introduction

Last year, I located details on the National Archives of Australia (NAA) RecordSearch database system, of a previously unknown UAP file. I submitted a request for the file to be examined for release. It has taken until now for this request to be processed, and for a PDF copy of the file to be made available to me.

The file cover gives the title as "Unidentified Flying Objects and mysterious happenings in PNG." The PDF file contains 107 pages of documents. Interestingly, the file cover bottom right hand side, says "PART File 69/4393," and the inside cover, states "Confidential part file cancelled 15/2/71." The end cover of the file goes on to state, "Unclassified part of 69/4393." Later on  in this post, I will provide my interpretation of the meaning of all these comments.

Contents

The first sighting on the file is dated 6 Dec 1957 from "Patrol post, Vanimo, Sepik District."... where two corporals reported a nocturnal, bright, white light descending apparently to the ground, for a ...muffled impact was heard." The corporals were Royal Australian Engineers. Due to time and financial limitations, a decision was taken to do nothing about the report.

A memo, dated 12 Feb 1958, from the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial and Research organisation (CSIRO)  to the Department of Territories (DOT) concluded that the object was most likely a meteor. A Department of Defence (DOD) memo, dated 26 Feb 1958 included (we) "...would appreciate being informed of any similar observations in the future. It is not, however, considered that a search would be justified from the Defence aspect in this particular instance."

Mysterious explosion

Image 98 of the digitised file is an encrypted radiogram addressed to "Territories Canberra" received 8 Jul 1958. Image 97 decodes the cable. Three people reported a "mysterious light explosion" between 1900-2100hrs July 2nd. Later papers reveal that the location was "South of the Shortlands."

Fallen object

A June 1959 radiogram to Canberra reported a UFO at 1900hrs Sunday 24 May 1959. Looking westwards, high in the sky, an object was seen to descend "...erratically in SW direction. Colour was of a brilliant blue." Disappeared at 2015hrs. A DOD memo dated 29 Jun 1959 noted they had copied the report to both the Departments of Air, and Civil Aviation.

Venus?

The next set of papers involves a series of observations from Baniara, Milne Bay District. An unidentified light was seen on various dates. There was debate about whether or not it was the planet Venus.

An unknown

Another sighting came from Giwa, on 26 Jun 1959, 8 miles from Baniara in Goodenough Bay. An object appeared at about 1915-1930hrs from the north to north-east. It descended, then hovered at an estimated 500 feet. It was at a 45 degree angle of elevation.

"It had the silhouette of a rugger football, and had a kind of ring around it with about four semi-domed portholes visible in the side that I could see. A glow was coming from these portholes. It remained hovering for about four minutes and then disappeared rapidly in a southerly direction. The following morning I went across to a village just below Boianai, and there the natives asked me if I had seen the 'new American Air Force' that had appeared the previous evening." (image 86.)

The memo reporting this sighting ended with the words "The Regional Director, Attorney General's Department has been kept fully informed of these reports." This is a reference to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO.)

Reverend Gill

Blog readers familiar with the 1959 Reverend Gill incident, will now start to take interest in this part of the file.

A gap in the file

At this point in the file, I noticed that the folio numbers on the top right hand corner of each page, which so far were numbered 1-24, suddenly jumped to folio number 33. There is a gap where folios 25-32 are missing.

UFOlogists unite

Image 83 is dated 25 Nov 1959 and is a letter addressed to "The Honourable PMC Hasluck, MHR, House of Representatives, Canberra." The letter is signed by five leaders of Australian UAP research groups. It forwards a report on "...a series of recent factual sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) seen over New Guinea."

By way of a memo dated 30 Nov 1959, the Secretary, DOT wrote to the Administrator of PNG, forwarding a copy of the letter and attached report. A list of recent PNG sightings was given and then "I should be glad if you would let me know whether any investigation of these reports has been undertaken by the Administration and, if not, let me have your views on the practicability of doing so."

Images 66 to 80 are of a "Report on Unidentified Flying Objects: Boianai, Territory of Papua and New Guinea 1959 by W B Gill, Boianai 14/7/59." which has appeared over the years in dozens of UAP publications.

Australasian Post

The October 13 1959 issue of the magazine "Australasian Post" article on the Reverend Gill and other sightings are shown at images 59-62.

Investigation

A memo dated 31 Dec 1959 from the Administrator, PNG to the Secretary DOT stated "The District Officer, Samarai, has been requested to comment on the reported sightings...He has also been asked to refer the matter on to an officer in the immediate area...so that local natives may be questioned..." (image 58.)

The response, dated 18 Jan 1960 advised that  "...no fresh reports of sightings have been made at Baniara...It is noted that Rev N Crutwell of Menapi had new sightings reports, and had passed these on to the "... Brisbane branch of the "Flying Saucer Review" an English Journal...Other than officers observing and reporting on these sightings, it does not seem practical for this Administration to take other action."

Newspaper article

The "Pacific Island Monthly" for October 1959 gave an overview of sightings including those of Reverend Gill and others. (Images 55-56.)

Department of Defence

A memo dated 8 Mar 1960 from DOD to DOT advised that copies of PNG reports had been forwarded to "...the heads of the Australian Joint Services Staffs in London and Washington for any interpretation of the reported phenomenon, which they could obtain from the United Kingdom or United States authorities."

"The head of AJSS London has informed us that the United Kingdom authorities were interested in the reports, some of which they considered could refer to meteors. The general feeling seemed to be that with so many independent reports in a fairly short period of time the phenomena could not be dismissed as imaginative observations and it was reasonably certain that something unusual was observed. They were not, however able to offer any explanation but expressed an interest in receiving further reports." No reply yet from Washington.

Another memo, this one dated 24 Mar 1960 from DOD to DOT included "The head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington has forwarded to us an evaluation of the sightings made by the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center. The Center was able to confirm that none of the sightings were due to known satellites but, on the evidence, considered that some of the reports could refer to the refracted light of stars and planets..."

Phenomena observed

A teleprinter message dated 3 Jun 1960 provides the following. 2320hrs 31 May 1960. Manus island. "Brilliant blinding light followed three to four minutes later by series of heavy explosive sounds." It was passed onto the DOD.

Images 45-51 describe other objects/lights in the sky, including one at 0400hrs 12 Jun 1961 from Azerita Plantation, Northern districts. Duration 15 minutes.

 "...the shiny object approached from the north east and was shaped like the hollow in a new moon, and could have been delta winged. The object was at an estimated height of 15,000 feet and kept moving backwards and forwards to and from the north-east." It was soundless. "Eventually retreated the way it came."

There is then a four year time gap, but no gaps in document folio numbers. Images 24-43 refer to lights seen in the Milne Bay district in July 1965.

1967- 1969

On 17 Mar 1967 at 1445hrs two objects were reported descending from the sky and falling into the sea, near Finschhafen.

At 0500hrs 16 May 1969 three people at Rabaul reported a stationary, bright white light. "It receded slowly in a south-easterly direction and disappeared about 5.30am."

Observation by radar

A memo dated 9 Jul 1970 from the Administrator, PNG to the Department of External Territories(image 13) reported receipt of a sighting from the Regional Director, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).

"On the 29th June 1970 at 1720hrs EST, Captain E N Keag, pilot-in-command of F.27 aircraft VH-FNK made the following observation from the aircraft radarscope:

Crossing the Sepik River on the Madang-Wewak track, on descent from 12,500 feet he noted echoes appearing on his radar from 60 degrees green to abeam the aircraft. The radar scale was set at 180 nautical miles and the echoes appeared to be about 60 nautical miles from his aircraft and keeping station with him. There were five cigar shaped objects. With the radar scanning on maximum depression or elevation the echoes disappeared.

The DCA has no record of any aircraft in the area at the time."

1970-1973

Images 4-11 refer to sightings of lights in the sky during these years; and declassification of certain papers on the file.

Gaps

Coming back to the matter of this being a part file and reference to classified papers; I checked the entire file folio numbering system. There are two gaps, namely folios 25-32 and 90-107 are missing from this file. There is a handwritten note at image 24, which states "Folios 90-107 are on classified part."

This does lead me to the conclusion that there is another "classified" part of file 69/4393 somewhere. What it contains is, of course, a mystery.

In summary

What have I learnt from this file? There are numerous papers which have appeared on DOD RAAF files previously uncovered by myself, in the National Archives of Australia. These have been published in a variety of places on the net.

However, this file has some papers new to me, e.g. fuller details of the 29 Jun 1970 aircraft radar observation. Other papers fill in the gaps in my existing knowledge; e.g. the AJSS London comments. The file is therefore worth a read through by readers. Go to the National Archives of Australia website, and use the keywords Papua unidentified  happenings in their search engine. You can then download the entire PDF file.