Caught on film by TV crew: The 1978 Kaikoura UFO sightings

Well done Zig-meister!

Both you and internos keep me off the fence - the grass isn't always greener on this side...but threads such as this keep me motivated...

I look forward to any anniversary trip the new owner may undertake...I just hope aliens celebrate anniversaries as well!

What a great thread. I live In Christchurch which is not far south of Kaikoura, I've been up there a few times.

Scary stuff.

the only time i've ever seen anything weird in the sky was when i was young. we lived on a cliff overlooking the ocean an hour south of kaikoura. we watched a light over the ocean going backwards and forwards for quite some time. could have been anything i guess but was interesting to us at the time.

this would have been before 1978 though, at a guesstimate 75/76.

Yea im a Kiwi lived in nelson for ages, heard this story heaps of times pretty cool! When is this reunion week? are there a few kiwis on here?

Well here we go then, forget the full disclosure people are asking for because with cases evidence and posts about these sightings we wont need it.

One of the more interesting parts of the story is the description during the return flight of the house sized sphere with the lateral lines, it would seem that an intelligent society attempting space travel would choose a shape that is naturally found in space like a sphere.
It is due to aerodynamic considerations that we have planes the shapes that they are but in space aerodynamics mean nothing, in zero gravity there is no up or down or forward or back there is just the directiojn you are travelling in and stellar phenomenon or objects (e.g. stars and planets) in relation to yourself.

Another thing is that a few people have mentioned that this case resembles some other case or another which is bringing a consistency into the sightings because it would seem sensible for the same ships/type of ships to be used be the same intelligence everytime rather that a radical depature in each case.

This is an amazing case due in part to the fact that two separate ATC's confirmed radar contacts and also due to the fact that the plane and crew made a second flight and saw the objects again.

Brilliant thread started here fantastically researched and presented, we could do with more people like you around here ziggystar.

[edit on 11-11-2008 by full997]

The way in which those NON-IDENT Craft were behaving, reminds me of how I once watched a Hammerhead Shark play around with some fisherman in the Atlantic. The shark surfaced Starboard-side, and just chilled there a moment, before re-submerging. Then the shark suddenly surfaced Port-side, and repeated the same actions, then re-submerged yet again. A moment later, the shark re-surfaced Aft of the Vessel, and just stared at the Two-Fishing lines being trolled behind. The Hammerhead then re-submerged and disappeared for good. All of this came about as the shark decided to play with the Fishing Lines, the Bait, and the Vessels. If you had to ask me what this denotes, I would say Intelligence, and the Consciousness of Observation. It shows Predatory Instincts as well, but then again, any Animal, whether Predator or Prey, always has a certain level of curiosity about New Found objects.

[edit on 11-11-2008 by TheAgentNineteen]

The same week the Kaikoura sightings happened, I was a 10 year old living in Christchurch. Attached to my bedroom was a sunroom that looked out over Pegasus Bay.

During my younger years I had trouble sleeping at night.

There was no point in waking my parents (they were sick of me disturbing them - now I understand why).

So, to pass the time at night I used to go into the sunroom, sit at my desk and gaze out over Pegasus Bay - the area where the some of the sightings occurred and where the aircraft in question banked to port and headed north.

It was one night during that week that I couldn't sleep, and did my usual thing and sat at the desk. It was then that I noticed two unusually large lights hanging in the sky, in the area directly past Brighton (a former bustling seaside shopping location that allowed Saturday shopping before it became standard for all retailers).

I watched the lights for about 15 minutes. The first light started moving slowly to the right towards Banks Peninsula and then stopped.

More importantly, and to my amazement, the second light darted to the right, shot up, then back towards the left before moving off towards the north-west (the direction of Cheviot would be the best description).

One of the lights was white. The other had a slight yellow tinge to it.

Two days later the news came out about the Kaikoura sightings.

It is because of this happening to me at such an early age, it has resulted in me being on this website; Abovetopsecret.com

I told my friends about it the sightings - but being Primary School kids, they laughed it off. But I never forgot.

Have I seen anything like that since? Well, no, unfortunately.

I big THANK YOU to everyone one who has commented and given me kind words. It is highly appreciated.

I am also very grateful for the extra material provided by Internos in his post! Is there ANYTHING this guy doesn't know?


The Dave: So you live in Christchurch? Keep us updated about the renunion event and any news stories, if possible!

II_raine_II: Thanks for sharing your story about the light over the ocean a couple of years before the event described in the OP. It seems that Kaikoura must have been a real hotspot for UFOs at one point.

TheAgentNineteen: Your story about the shark was excellent - and also a little scary... Thanks! I repeat it here in case anyone missed your post:
"The way in which those NON-IDENT Craft were behaving, reminds me of how I once watched a Hammerhead Shark play around with some fisherman in the Atlantic. The shark surfaced Starboard-side, and just chilled there a moment, before re-submerging. Then the shark suddenly surfaced Port-side, and repeated the same actions, then re-submerged yet again. A moment later, the shark re-surfaced Aft of the Vessel, and just stared at the Two-Fishing lines being trolled behind. The Hammerhead then re-submerged and disappeared for good. All of this came about as the shark decided to play with the Fishing Lines, the Bait, and the Vessels. If you had to ask me what this denotes, I would say Intelligence, and the Consciousness of Observation. It shows Predatory Instincts as well, but then again, any Animal, whether Predator or Prey, always has a certain level of curiosity about New Found objects."

Mr Gunter: Wow! You were an actual EYEWITNESS to the lights? I can't tell you how grateful I am that you posted your story in this thread. If you remember anything else, or have more information to share with us, I can assure you that I am all ears!


[edit on 11/11/08 by ziggystar60]

Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!

IT's a person dressed up in black with an old fashioned TORCH!!!!!
Waving it around.

Just look at it move. And llok at the black surrounding it. Look at the way it moves around like a torch at the different angles like someone is using a torch and swinging it in thier hands. Look at tit also when it gets up close.....

I mean CMON!!!!!!!!! It's a freakin torch!

This shape reminds me of the same shape that was described by a pilot. That flew along side his plane. I think there was actually more than 1 of them. They were really big in size and had the same colour to them. I think there's also a documentary about it somewhere, i'll see if I can find it.

[edit on 11-11-2008 by Lee_K]

reply to post by ziggystar60

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Fantastic thread ZiggyStar

Now, I find that part very interesting. Who exactly was this psychiatrist?.. seems more like a priest considering his explanation.

And why would someone see angels if they had lost their faith in God? .. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

I'm surprised that I've never heard of this most significant case. Roswell 1947, Rendelsham 1980 and now Kaikoura 1978 is added to my list of favorites.

In reply to Chadwickus and Lee_K:
the first similar thing that comes to mind is Captain Kenju Terauchi's description of the JAL 1628 ufo encounter.


While Terauchi's one looks more simmetric, we have to keep in mind that it's a comparison between a real frame and a drawing, so it wouldn't be too stretched.

Regarding the "possible explanations" provided, each one of them lacks totally of reliability, reason and logic. The TV crew was sent to FLY in order to intercept the lights, and they DID intercept them in the sky: whatever they were, they were actually there and weren't reflections or whatever they said: not to mention the psychiatrist who suggested that they were seeing ANGELS: that psychiatrist has been too much in touch with crazy people, in my opinion .

Who knew that Superman was flying around that aircraft, dressed in black and with a torch in his hand?

You solved this case all by yourself, man!

This brings back fond memories. I remember this being all over the news here in Australia when I was a kid. It really sparked my interest... and made me a little bit fearful to be honest.

Nice work Ziggy!

It wasn't that long ago on the UFO's/Aliens board that a thread boldly claimed that this part of the world was boring and that nothing ever happens here.

I'll be saving this one to my hard drive for posterity!

Thanks for bringing the good stuff to the board. This is what it's all about!

Star & Flag!

IRM

An intriguing incident.
The radar targets didn't seem to jibe entirely with the visual sightings and intermittent radar contacts can be troublesome, but...interesting.

Flying sheep?

[edit on 11-11-2008 by Phage]

Thanks, InfraRedMan, I appreciate it. There are many intriguing old UFO cases like this, the problem is that many seem to have been almost forgotten. I did not even know about this case until Internos told me about it. So start digging, you never know what gem you might find!

And Phage, does this mean that this is only going to be the 5 minute argument, then?

Now I for one, would like to see how you can explain this incident Phage.

Swamp Gas?

By the way, you're my favorite skeptic on ATS dude

Oh i remember this happening!!!! This case really did spark my interest in UFO's. I was 9 years old at the time when it was reported as a major story on BBC News, And i knew it was not a joke as the newsreaders were looking somewhat worried. All i thought of at the time was now maybe they will land! I kept hoping they would, but of course they never did and the story was soon forgotten. My father has a book on this very topic and if i remember rightlight i think Captain Starup wrote it, though i might be wrong about that. looks of eyewitness accounts together with colour pictures of the UFO's themselves. In my opinion this case remains one of the best cases for saying somehting happened that Christmas that was not of this world....

Flying sheep?!


Oh no, this is going to be the FULL HALF HOUR! Why did I open my big mouth?!

reply to post by ziggystar60

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Unidentified lights, unidentified radar contacts. Well documented and photographed (sort of). Nothing to argue (oh, were that it were different!)


It's sheep I say! Well all know NZ is overrun with 'em.