(Continued)
(00:33) WATCC informed Christchurch Air Traffic Control (CATCC) that they had a target at five o'clock to the Argosy at a distance of 10 miles.
CATCC could not confirm. WATCC said: "...not moving, not too much speed... It is moving in an easterly direction now."
(00:35) WATCC: "The target you mentioned, the last one we mentioned, make it 5:00 at 4 miles previously, did you see anything?" Startup: "We saw
that one. It came up at 4:00, I think, around 4 miles away." WATCC: "Roger, that target is still stationary. It's now 6:00 to you at about 15 miles
and it's been joined by two other targets."
(00:36) WATCC informed the Argosy that the three targets had now merged on their scopes. Startup requested permission to do another turn to
investigate and permission was granted. Despite this brief investigation, the crew saw nothing.
(00:39) The Argosy continued on its way to Christchurch. CATCC reported to the plane that a target was pacing the aircraft to their west overland.
Guard checked the window and saw a rapidly-moving light in that direction. The Argosy went on to land at the airbase.
On the flight back to Wellington, Dennis Grant replaced sound recordist Ngaire Crockett, who did not want to return to the area where these UFOs were
flying. The Argosy took off again at 2:15 on it's return journey.
Not long after take off the crew saw two more objects. David Crockett saw a sphere with lateral lines around it which was spinning. CATCC confirmed
that this object was swaying continuously on their scopes for 4 minutes. The object, which was the size of a house, moved in relation to the aircraft,
suggesting intelligent control.
The crew also saw two pulsating lights, one of which suddenly descended in a blurred streak for 1000ft/300m before ascending in a series of jerky
movements.
STILL PHOTOS OF SOME OF THE LIGHTS:
VIDEO WITH SOME OF THE ORIGINAL TV FILM
(No comments on the video, just music)
SEVERAL THINGS COMFIRMS THE SIGHTINGS AS REAL:
– The Royal New Zealand Air Force put a Skyhawk jet fighter on full alert to intercept any other UFOs which might appear.
– Examination of the film and computer enhancement concurs that the footage is genuine.
– The radar technician, Bryan Chalmers, responsible for maintaining the radar, checked it for evidence of anomalous propogation/refractive beam
bending during the sightings. These tests prove that atmospheric refraction could not account for the radar sightings.
– Turbulence and atmospheric refraction could to some degree be attributed to the radar angels (unknown targets) towards the coastline. Strong
reflectors of radar on the ground might appear to move around on the scope due to the strong refraction. But for this explanation to work off the
coast would mean that there were numerous strong reflectors on the ocean spread out over a wide area due to the multitude of targets picked up during
the Argosy's flights, which is unlikely given that no running lights could be seen by the cabin crew.
– Furthermore any boats on the ocean should not have shown up on the radar scope because it has a filter which screens any such targets. The
sensitivity of the radar scopes at Wellington means that Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) or birds/insects/weather would not have been detected beyond 50
nm. The Argosy was 82 nm from WATCC at the time of the DST.
THE ART OF DEBUNKING:
The film taken by the Australian film crew would be shown all over the world. The BBC network gave a lead report on the film on an evening news show.
Great controversy followed these sightings after an investigation by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the police and Wellington Observatory. The New
Zealand Ministry of Defence and other parties came up with a variety of explanations for these sightings:
– Lights from squid boats reflected off clouds
– Unburned meteors
– Drug runners
– City lights reflected off the breasts of flocks of mutton birds
– Venus
– Lights from trains or cars
– One psychiatrist suggested that the people onboard the Argosy had lost their faith in God, and that they were seeing angels (!).
Despite these supposed mundane and harmless causes, the results of official investigations were stamped "Top Secret" and lodged in the National
Archives in Wellington. And this is what the pilot, Captain Startup, and the TV reporter Quentin Fogarty said in a recent interview:
"We got all sorts of people ringing us up telling us we're idiots," says Mr Startup. "We were fooling the public, we were putting a hoax out,
this was all a big hoax for Christmas," says Mr Startup.
"I became a bit of an object for criticism and almost ridicule, because we were poo-pooed by the authorities, and sceptics came out of the woodwork
and cherry picked the things that suited them and dismissed all the evidence, and said we saw this, we saw that," says Mr Fogarty.
Some of explanations for what they had a seen and filmed were Venus, squid boat lights and the lights of Wellington and Christchurch.
"People can think about that, but they weren't on the aircraft," says Mr Startup.
None of those involved are satisfied with any of explanations given by scientists and government officials.
"None of them to my knowledge or satisfaction have coordinated the visual sighting with the radar sighting," he says. "They've said the visual
sighting was squid boats, it was Venus, it was Jupiter, it was the harbour lights. You name it, they can come up with all sorts of reasons for what it
was.
"But they haven't explained why I can see Jupiter, Venus and the harbour lights doing 140 knots on my radar." says Mr Startup.
3O YEAR REUNION EVENT:
The famous Argosy plane of the flight in 1978 is now owned by film maker Paul Davidson. He has organised a 30th reunion event.
Marlborough film-maker and owner of the original plane, Paul Davidson, is organising for a plane to follow the same flight path up and down the
coast between Blenheim and Christchurch on December 30.
The 1978 pilots and crew will be on board, providing commentary. There are also seats for paying members of the public.
The original Argosy cannot fly any more, so a Dash-8 aircraft will be used. "It's a great aircraft, with great views and big windows," said Mr
Davidson.
He said the two main points that added credibility to the sightings were that the pilots knew the area of the sky well, and the objects were picked up
on two independent radar systems. A cameraman and reporter were also on board saw and recorded the objects.
The objects were unidentifed and definitely flying, but whether they were from another another planet was another question, Mr Davidson said.
The flight is part of Kaikoura UFO Anniversary week in Blenheim from December 28-31, which will also involve a UFO Symposium, tours of the Argosy
aircraft and a movie.
If any of the ATS members attend the UFO Anniversary week in Blenheim, I would very much appreciate it if they could share their experiences there. I
also want to thank
Internos for pointing me to this case and providing me with the background material!
Sources and further reading:
www.scoop.co.nz...
www.3news.co.nz...
ufos.about.com...
www.ufocusnz.org.nz...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.stuff.co.nz...
www.rense.com... 
