At the beginning of December 21, 1978, Argosa freight leaving Wellington in New Zealand, during a routine trip to Christchurch. He wore Captain Bill Startup, second pilot Bob Guard and a load -full of successful newspapers to the South Island. But what began as a routine load mission soon transformed into one of the strangest cases of UFOs of the newfangled era.
When the plane passed Kaikōura, the string of strange lights flashed in the sky after the plane. Some were described as glowing red or orange balls; Others pulsed like brilliant white navigation signals. Even more unusual, the lights were not simply observed visually, they were also confirmed by radar by Wellington air traffic controllers, who reported the objects as solid goals traveling with craftsmanship.
“We have a glowing red, glowing airy on our position 10. One of the pilots said on the radio.
For the crew, what should be a routine flight has become surreal. And that was just the beginning.
Lights, camera … UFO?
The news about Kaikōura's observations appeared quickly. Just ten days later, on December 30, 1978, the Australian television team from channel 0 (currently network 10), Melbourne, boarded another Argosa flight. Reporter Quentin Fogarta, cameraman David Crockett and his wife and recorder Ngaire Crockett were a crew.
That night, when the plane was approaching the Clarence River, something extraordinary happened again.
Air traffic controllers in Wellington Radio entered, warning the crew that an unidentified object is going. A moment later the lights multiplied. Fogarty, a bit shocked when he described what he saw, remembered that she really began to scare when the whole formation of unidentified flying objects began to appear. Then one of the objects was on a clear view, a large glowing shape with a brightly lit lower half and a transparent, round upper top. He resembled a flying saucer to the amazed crew.
In his fight on the stage, David Crockett was able to shoot almost 30 seconds of material, an amazing film that eventually circulates in the international arena, a fascinating world.
Government control and skeptical explanations
When Kaikōura lights sent shock waves through international media, both New Zealand and the army began investigations. The New Zealand Air Force (RNZAFZ) even sent the ORON P-3 supervision aircraft to recognize the area, and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSiR) examined video and radar information.
The explanation presented by the authorities was unsatisfactory for those who witnessed how they developed with their own eyes. Government reports indicate that the lights were most likely naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena, such as the reflection of the lights of the Kalmar boat, reflecting from clouds or the optical illusion of Venus or Jupiter breaks down in the atmosphere. Several radar “anomalies” were rejected as defective readings due to weather conditions.
However, for people in this story, these explanations will solve under control. The Wellington radar operator, who followed the objects, John Cordy, strongly denied that they could be an optical breakdown or erroneously identified blue objects. He added that there were no misunderstandings. These were permanent items; They were solid items for over forty miles that followed the plane.
The David Crockett computer was similarly doubtful. When skeptics told him that his film material was probably the planet of Venus, he decided to prove this theory to himself and his viewers, shooting at the very material of Venus in similar conditions. The results were clearly different. As Crockett noted, Venus was only a small dot on the lens, nowhere is the size of what they saw on Kaikōura tonight.
Personal costs and unanswered questions
Although Kaikōura lights are put by people involved in the international spotlight airy, it was not without a defect. A journalist who first announced this story, Quentin Fogarta, was now mentioned by the press “UFO reporter”. Stress related to the situation affected his health, which caused nervous exhaustion and hospitalization. Just then, the marriage of David and Ngaire Crockett broke up, obsessive searching for the answers ahead of their lives. Pilot Bill Startup, although he never drew wild conclusions, always insisted that what they saw was true. But a few years later he had a stroke and had to retire after flying. Bob Guard's collaborator, although he was a skeptic of UFO, later admitted that he had never seen such a thing before or since.
However, Kaikōura lights slowly slipped out of public awareness, rejected by officials and skeptics. But for the people who were there, the questions remained unanswered.
Are modern UFO observations a model?
Ten years after Kaikōura's lights, such observations did not stop and similar relations have appeared, recently from American Navy pilots who described incredibly similar air phenomena. New York Times in 2017 revealed that Pentagon conducted research on UFOs and what he called “anomal air vehicles”, including incidents in which American military pilots saw objects that could travel and change the direction at hypersonic speed, and others The way they had the possibilities that are known to known laws of physics.
That the same features, unexplained movement, radar returns, confusion among experienced observers, almost perfectly match the Kaikōura lights. “I reviewed this material” – said optical physicist Bruce Maccabe, who studied the film Kaikōura, “I came back and studied the case and stated that the case deserved much more investigation than ever.” He was amazed that more than one unidentified object drifted in the airspace of New Zealand and that the case was later released and forgotten.
Conclusion: a secret that will not die
So four decades later, what can we say about Kaikōura's lights? And this is still true, despite various explanations, from atmospheric reflection to the squid boats. Official reports do not explain how something that seemed to be an optical illusion was visible to the radar, nor do they explain how trained pilots and air traffic controllers perceived the same phenomenon in real time.
Is it just incorrectly identified blue objects? Any secret military experiment? Or maybe it was something much stranger, something that opposed our understanding?
Currently, Kaikōura lights are among the most documented cases of UFOs of all time. And perhaps, when the world continues to assess the phenomenon of unidentified air objects, we will finally approach the truth.
Until then, we have one finale, a terrifying quote from Quentin Fogarta, spoken in the camera, when unknown lights floated in front of the plane tonight: “Let's hope they are warm.”
Sources and references
Culthart, R. (2021). In the view: investigation in the UFO and impossible learning. Harpercollins.
Davidson, P. (2009). Kaikōura ufos [Documentary].
Fogarty, Q. (1982). Let's hope they are warm: the extraordinary story of Kaikōura UFO. Nexus publishing.
Maccabee, B. (1979). Analysis of the Kiaikōura UFO material from 1978. Optics used.
New Zealand Ministry of Defense. (1979). Official report on the Kaikōura Lights incident. Declassified in accordance with the Official Information Act (2010).
NZ Herald. (2018, December 15). The crew remembers the day when UFO was noticed by Kaikōura 40 years later.
Radio New Zealand. (2021, 31 July). The documents show that GOVT officials could not explain the observation of Kaikōura Lights UFO.
Williamson, L. (2024). It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a boat on Kalmarska: re -checking the KIEKōura UFO incident. AA Directions magazine.
Wikipedia. (2023). Light Kaikūhua.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
