The Kaikoura UFO sighting continues to baffle, 30 years on

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It has been almost 30 years since unidentified flying objects were observed off the coast of Kaikoura during the Christmas/New Year break of 1978.

The sightings are to be marked soon with a commemorative flight, a gathering of enthusiasts and even a musical.

At the time, news of the sightings was reported worldwide and to this day they remain a huge source of controversy.

But the remarkable thing about the sightings is whatever was flying around that night was not just observed, it showed up on radar too and was caught on film.

It is one of New Zealand's biggest mysteries and one of the world's best documented sightings of a UFO.

"The most important thing I think about his story is that even to this day, the flight crew and the air traffic controllers are adamant that we saw something highly unusual that can't be explained in mundane terms," says journalist Quentin Fogarty. "Now, 30 years later, they still believe that."

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:24

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[MrHelmyabdullah]

@joshowen88 I wish I can go and visit New Zealand . My uncle migrated there with her wife in 2003 , much to the displeasure of his late father

[joshowen88]

@MrHelmyabdullah Paraparaumu is a small town north off New Zealands Capital Wellington. I used it in my example because you can fly from there to Kaikoura without going into controlled airspace, thus you need not talk to any controllers and with your transponder off, the controllers will only see a dot.

[MrHelmyabdullah]

I was seven in 1978 . If I were the the pilot or just a mere passenger on board , I either pissed in my pants or suffering a heart seizure or bailed-out .

[MrHelmyabdullah]

@joshowen88 P-a-r-a-p-a-r-a-u-m-u ?

[joshowen88]

@cadmus98 I'm not claiming to know this to be fact but this is my best guess. there are many possibility's and though they may not be as cool as aliens, they are more plausible and very cool in their own right.

[joshowen88]

@cadmus98 the strange movements could be a few things, but as it is night time I would bet it is a know phenomena. i forget the name auto- something but i know the problem well. Basically if you look at a single spot of light with a featureless background it will appear to dance around as the brain try's to make sense of the image. Also it can disappear as your focus passes over it, This is because the center of your eye contain no rod cells, which is your night vision cells pretty much.

[joshowen88]

@cadmus98 Not if a pilot makes no log,which you don't have to do. For example if i took a plane from Paraparaumu to Christchurch and didn't go into controlled airspace, I would be unknown to the controllers. I could fly in uncontrolled airspace and make no official log. this happens every day and is legal, Good airman-ship would be to make a log or have a friend flight follow for safety and check ups.

[cadmus98]

@joshowen88 They should still have a record of what planes are currently flying what routes, shouldn't they? All they'd need to do is check the logs to see what other planes were flying that route that night. Besides, if it was another plane, how do you explain some of those strange movements that a plane cannot do?

[joshowen88]

@cadmus98 ATC only know what the radar shows and what pilots report. if a pilot is flying without his transponder on and is not reporting( which is common) then ATC would not know of the aircraft and would only have a target from one of their radar systems, which could explain this story, . also the radar could be picking up a reflection which would also explain this. is that clear enough to understand? if not, feel free to ask for more detail. just explain what i didn't make clear enough cheers

[cadmus98]

@joshowen88 You'd think that ATC would know of another aircraft following the freighter.