Family sights object - Port Moresby - 1962

Hi all,

Continuing my series of posts drawn from material audio recorded by the late Professor James E McDonald, during his visit to Australia in 1967. This post describes details of McDonald's interview with a Mrs I Naughton; her son Kenneth, and daughter Serena, about their observation of an unusual object 'a little before dusk' on an evening in late February 1962 in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The whole experience is said to have lasted for several minutes. 

Port Moresby 1962

Image courtesy of Google maps

At the time of this interview, the Naughtons’ were living at 15 Grandview Street, Pymble, Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia.  The interview was conducted by telephone, with breaks when Mrs Naughton consulted with her husband over various aspects of the sighting.

The date of the sighting was first believed to be February/March 1962, then Mrs Naughton decided it was late February 1962.  The family were living in the Ela Beach area of Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea.  They lived in a house on a cliff overlooking the bay.  She was standing on the front balcony of the house, facing the water.  Her husband was inside and only saw the end of the sighting.  At the time of the sightings her son, Kenneth, was aged 10, and daughter, Serena, aged 7, they were both nearby at the time of the sighting.

Mrs Naughton, saw a rowing boat, stationary in the water below the house, with two ‘men’, sitting down in the boat.  She watched this boat for five minutes.  Then she looked at the top of a nearby mountain, where there was a red anti-aircraft collision beacon.  She saw, ‘This thing,’ come around the mountain.  It was round and appeared to be a grey/steel colour.  It travelled over the bay in front of her, then turned to the left of her; turned again and hovered over the rowing boat.  It stayed there for, ‘A couple of minutes,’ then departed.  Her son was jumping up and down.  Her daughter called Mr Naughton to come and look at it.

The object signals

While the object had been over the boat, ‘Signalling,’ began.  A white light came down from the object and shone on the boat.  A fainter light shone from the boat towards the object.  The light on the object flashed on and off.  The light from the boat, shone upwards, like a torch.  She thought the signalling appeared, ‘Contrived.’

The object had a red light around its rim.  Asked about its shape, she replied, ‘That it was like a dinner plate.’  It was saucer like, flat on the bottom and rounded on the top.  She thought there was a little dome on the top, but said her son and daughter didn’t see this.  Around the rim of the base were a series of individual red lights.  She had the impression this was due to red light shining out of portholes in the object.  These red lights were not rotating or blinking.  The signalling white light came from the right-hand side rim, near the bottom.  The shape of the object was symmetrical around its central axis.  It was distinct in outline and therefore, not blurred.

After further questioning, by McDonald, she stated that she had not seen the underneath of the object as it had hovered level with their cliff top house.  She estimated the house was 30 metres above the water.

The light flashing from the object seemed to be in a pattern, of 1-2-3-4 down, and then a light from the boat below signalled the same sequence.  There were then other sequences of flashing lights passing between object and the boat.  She was unable to estimate the duration of this signalling.

The figures in the boat were sitting down.  The ‘man’ in the front was doing the signalling to the object, using a torch.

Image courtesy Google maps

Another sighting

At this point Mrs Naughton made a reference to another sighting, by a man named Allan Davis.  The day after the Naughtons’ sighting, she heard from Mr Davis, a neighbour of theirs who had a nearby flat, that in 1957, over the same bay, Davis sighted a ‘Flying saucer.’  He said that at 2 am one morning, in bright moonlight, he had seen an unusual object, signalling.  Davis worked for the Australian Department of Civil Aviation.

McDonald asked Mrs Naughton if in 1962, there had been talk of Indonesian espionage in the area?  She said there had not.

McDonald mentioned the 1959 Reverend Gill sighting, and Mrs Naughton stated that she had read about it in the papers, and that she was aware that Gill had an excellent reputation.  She had never met him.

McDonald asked what Mrs Naughton thought the family had seen that evening in 1962?  She said she thought it was a, ‘Scout ship,’ that had been around since biblical times and watching our development; perhaps later to contact us when we had space travel.  She had come to this conclusion since 1962.

McDonald then spoke to Serena, then aged 12.  Serena’s account was that there had been a, ‘Flying saucer,’ near the house, and a boat in the water, they were signalling to each other.  The object had been white, with five to six lights around its rim.  In shape, it looked like two saucers stuck together.  She did not see the dome her mother thought she had seen.  The object finally turned around and quickly moved off.

McDonald spoke to Kenneth, then aged 15 years.  Kenneth said he saw the object come around the hill into the bay from his right.  It was long and slender in shape.  It was a shiny colour, silver and not very shiny.  It had lights around its rim, which appeared to be reddish.  He saw an exchange of light flashes between object and boat.  The object finally left, after hovering.  It went upwards and was lost from view, very quickly.

McDonald returned to speaking with Mrs Naughton and asked her about the diameter of the object.  After much discussion she settled on a diameter of half a metre at three metres distance.  She said that at no time was there any noise associated with the object and there had been no flames during its departure.  She had seen nothing like it since.