By Emma Jolliff
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has released 70 years worth of secret documents, containing eye-witness accounts of UFO sightings.
While defence says it hasn’t got the resources to analyse them, one UFO expert says it’s best to get any UFO secrets out into the open.
The 12 volumes of documents date back to 1952 and include illustrations of what UFO spotters claim to be aliens.
The 2500 pages contain reports from the public, military personnel, and passengers on board aircrafts, and were released by the NZDF today in exchange for a $150 photocopying fee.
UFO expert Murray Bott told 3 News most UFOs are less mysterious than they seem.
“I don’t believe the Government will have anything of great value,” he says.
“But it is essential for transparency.”
Mr Bott says 90 percent of what people report as “Unidentified Flying Objects” become identified flying objects – reflected light, lens flare, aircraft in unusual lighting conditions, toy hot air balloons, or LED kites.
He says a true UFO may not mean it’s extra terrestrial, there’s simply insufficient information to identify it.
The NZDF is keen to point out the books are collated documents only.
It says it doesn’t have the resources to analyse or investigate the contents.
New Zealand’s most famous UFO sighting was off the coast of Kaikoura in 1978. UFO s were seen following a freight plane. Also caught on aircraft radar, it is one of the world’s best-documented sightings.
Thirty years on, journalist Quentin Fogarty says they “saw something highly unusual that can’t be explained in mundane terms”.
More recently, a UFO was reported over the Waitakere Ranges in August.
The witness described something that looked like a ship in the sky, with three big spotlights flashing different colours.
The UFO files have been held by Archives New Zealand, but were released after a request under the Official Information Act.
The NZDF has removed some names from the documents, to comply with privacy rules.
Throughout the documents, RNZAF letters repeatedly state that it doesn’t conduct investigations into UFOs.
Perhaps best summarised by a letter in relation to one sighting, which says, “No further comment at this end, and I am not raising the subject. Let it die a natural and unmourned death”.
3 News