Introduction. Page I iii Abstract. Explanation of nicap and its policies
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- C. OCEAN ANTARTICA
- NORTH PACIFIC
123 The sighting was detailed in the Nairobi Sunday Post, February 25, 1951, by Capt. Jack Bicknell, pilot of the East African Airways plane. Extracts from Capt. Bicknell's report: "The Lodestar plane left Nairobi West at 7:00 a.m. At 7:20 a.m., the radio officer (D. W. Merrifield) drew my attention to a bright object like a white star hanging motionless about 10,000 feet above Kilimanjaro. My first reaction was to say nothing. We watched it for three minutes. Then we told the passengers about it. One of them had a very powerful pair of binoculars with him and he began to study it. In the meantime, we put a radio message through to Eastleigh describing it. Eastleigh asked us to check whether it was a meteorological balloon. I then examined it for several minutes through the binoculars. . . [At this point the plane had approached to within about 50 miles of the mountain]... "Through the glasses I saw a metallic, bullet shaped object which must have been over 200 feet long. At one end was a square- cut vertical fin. Its color was a dull silver, and at regular intervals along the fuselage were vertical dark bands. Its whole outline was clear and sharp and there was no haziness about it at all. . . It was absolutely stationary, and remained that way for 17 minutes. . . [Capt. Bicknell states that two passengers were taking photographs at this time] "Then it began to move eastwards, rising as it did so. It disappeared at about 40,000 feet. . . The machine left no vapor trail, and it had no visible means of propulsion. . . My impression was that it was definitely a flying machine of some kind." 
New Yorker magazine, October 23, 1954 reported a UFO sighting by the Administrator of Danane, French West Africa on September 19th of that year. He, his wife, a doctor, and others saw an object described as an "oval flying machine" with a dome, and lights like searchlights. In populous South Africa, scientists, aviation personnel, police and many others have reported UFO sightings. At the Upington Meteorological Station, Cape Province, December 7, 1954 the Officer-in-Charge, Mr. R. H. Kleyweg, tracked a white semi-circular UFO through a theodolite for about a minute. Then the object began moving too fast to track. "I have followed thousands of Meteorological balloons," Mr. Kleyweg said. "This object was no balloon." [53.] During the North and South American "flap" in November 1957 [See Section X~, hundreds of people in the Southern Transvaal area witnessed an "enormous" cylindrical UFO. On the night of November 5, the object was observed hovering in the sky. South African Air Force searchlights in Dunnotar pin pointed the UFO, which then "withdrew" behind clouds, according to witnesses. [54.] At Johannesburg, April 11, 1958, H. F. Daniels (airport instrument inspector) and others watched a reddish-white UFO above the north horizon at night, moving back and forth east and west. "I have worked with aircraft for 18 years," Mr. Daniels said, "and the thing I saw was certainly no conventional plane. The speed was phenomenal and it sometimes became completely stationary, changing color from white to blood red." [55.] Many other African UFO sightings, some from French air bases and scientific stations, are recorded by Aime Michel.
Because of language difficulties, NICAP has not been able to compile as many reports from the Far East (except in the Australia-New Zealand area), but it is known that UFOs are often seen and that UFO groups exist in most countries. A query to the Nationalist Chinese Government, referred to the Taiwan Weather Bureau, brought the following reply in 1903: "The Mission for the observation on unidentified flying objects should be assigned to a Military Agency such as National Civil Defense Organization in order to meet the emergencies. The Government will inform the public on the sightings of UFOs when the situation is necessary. . . At present no conclusion on the observation of UFOs has been reached or an official report. . announced to the public." [56.] An unclassified Air Force intelligence report in NICAP possession describes a U.S. Air Force sighting of a "large round object" somewhere in the Far East in December 1950. A jet pilot experienced radar jamming as he closed on the UFO, and saw it flash away easily outdistancing his jet. [Section 1.] On September 15, 1954, in Manbhum, Bihar, India Mr. Ijapada Chatterjee (manager of a mica mine) and hundreds of others watched a saucer-shaped object descend to an altitude of about 500 feet. The UFO hovered, then soared upwards at terrific speed causing a tremendous gust of wind. The object was seen over a mine which has supplied beryllium for the U.S Atomic Energy Commission. [57.] A book entitled "The Mystery of the Flying Saucers Revealed," published in Indonesia in 1961, contains a foreword by the Air Force Chief of Staff, Air Chief Marshal S Suryadarma, which discloses that UFOs have often been reported by Indonesian Air Force personnel. The author is Col. J. Salatun, Secretary of the Indonesian Joint Chiefs of Staff and member of the Supreme People's Congress. NICAP checked with the Indonesian Embassy and verified the positions of both men. In Japan and Korea, notably during the Korean War, UFOs have often been sighted by U.S. Air Force and other military personnel.
Another hotspot of UFO activity has been the Australia-- New Zealand area. The great number of UFO sightings in this region (about the same southern latitudes as Brazil - Uruguay - Argentina) and the amount of public interest in them can only be suggested in this limited survey of foreign reports. [60.] As in many other countries, UFOs are "officially" non existent. A 1963 letter to a NICAP member from A. B. McFarlane, Secretary, Department of Air, Commonwealth of Australia states: "From time to time reports of unidentified flying objects are received and investigated by the Royal Australian Air Force, but details of individual investigations have not been made public.". .The letter goes on to quote a 1960 speech in Parliament by Minister for Air, Hon. F. M. Osborne: "Nearly all UFO reports] are explainable on a perfectly normal basis. . . only three or four per cent cannot be explained on the basis of some natural phenomenon, and nothing that has arisen from that three or four
percent. . . gives any firm support for the belief that interlopers from other places in this world or outside it have been visiting us." [61.] The New Zealand Embassy in 1963 said their government had never stated any policy on UFOs and that "a policy on this subject has never been warranted." In mid-December 1954 a Royal Australian Navy pilot was flying back to Nowra air base after dark when "two strange air craft resembling flying saucers" took up formation with him. The pilot called Nowra air control, whose radar showed three objects flying together. The pilot identified himself by moving according to pattern. Upon landing, the pilot said the two UFOs were much faster than his Seafury fighter. [62.] As a result of hundreds of similar UFO reports, there are a number of UFO groups in Australia. NICAP member Peter E. Norris, an attorney in Melbourne, heads the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, which publishes "Flying Saucer Re view" (not to be confused with a publication of the same name in London). On October 16, 1957 Air Marshal Sir George Jones sighted a UFO resembling a balloon with a white light on the bottom, except that it sped past silently at an altitude of about 500 feet "Nothing can shake mc from my belief in what I saw," he said. Interviewed by Mr. Norris, he admitted he had no explanation for the sight ing. Sir George Jones is the former Commander-in-Chief of the RAAF. During the November 1957 "flap" in the western hemisphere, Australia also was flooded with sightings. Mr. Norris reported that "during early November UFO reports came from all Australian states except Tasmania." The most prominent UFO organization in New Zealand is Civilian Saucer Investigation headed by Harold H. Fulton, a Sergeant in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Mr. Fulton is now a NICAP Adviser. C.S.I. publishes a bulletin named "Space Probe," however, it has recently been suspended while Mr. Fulton has been on a tour of active duty with the RNZAF. Over the years, Mr. Fulton has contributed dozens of good cases to NICAP and actively publicized serious UFO evidence in his country. A National New Zealand Airlines plane was enroute to Auckland, N.Z., from Wellington on the night of October 31, 1955. At the controls was Capt. W. T. Rainbow. The co-pilot was S. G. Trounce. A bright object, changing color repeatedly, came from behind the plane on a parallel course, flew alongside, passed the plane and disappeared in the distance. Capt. Rainbow estimated the UFOs' speed at about 850 mph. The strange object, unlike any aircraft, pulsated in colors of red, yellow, orange, and blue. One of the potentially most important pieces of evidence for UFOs is a secret motion picture film purporting to show a saucer-like UFO climbing steeply over Port Moresby, New Guinea. The film was taken August 31, 1953 by Mr. T. C. Drury, Deputy Regional Director of Civil Aviation. According to Reuters news agency, the film was sent to Air Technical Intelligence Center in Dayton, Ohio, for analysis. The USAF analysis report has never been released. C. OCEAN & ANTARTICA UFOs have been sighted at sea, in the islands of the major oceans, and in Antarctica. Reports from ships' officers are of unusual interest because they are experienced sky observers, familiar with the stars and planets and other astronomical and atmospheric phenomena. A well-qualified scientific observer aboard an ice-breaker in Admiralty Bay, Antarctica, sighted a luminous object which divided into two parts while flying on a level course below an overcast. This phenomenon was observed by Rubens J. Villela, Brazilian meteorologist, March 16, 1961. [Section VI.] Pacific Ocean Two objects "like small moons" were observed June 18, 1957 about 150 miles off San Francisco. Capt. C. O. Wertz, Roy Melton, electrician, and other crew members of the freighter "Hawaiian Fisherman" at 8:00 p.m., watched the objects pacing the freighter. Then 15 minutes later a third UFO joined the first two, making a V, and followed the ship. [63.] A missionary and four natives in a separate location, in the Fiji Islands witnessed a circular white UFO which descended and hovered about 20 feet above the sea during the night of October 8, 1957. The UFO was revolving and gave off a blinding beam of light as the natives approached it in their boat. The natives reported seeing a man-like figure on top of the object. [64.] Trans-Oceanic pilots have often sighted strange aerial phenomena, but are reluctant to talk about their experiences. Capt. Willis T. Sperry, American Airlines pilot whose plane was circled by an elliptical UFO May 29, 1950 [Section V.1 stated in 1951: "I have talked to just as many pilots who have seen strange occurrences while flying and have not reported it, as have re ported the incident. The ones who did not report it feared adverse publicity. . . Several P.A.A. [Pan American Airways] pilots have seen unexplained objects far from land - one near Australia, several between the mainland of California and Hawaii, and two that I talked to out there [in the Far East] said they saw an object close enough so they could describe it in some detail. ."[65.] The sighting of a formation of UFOs east of Hawaii by the crews of several aircraft July 11, 1959 was reported widely by Associated Press, United Press International and Hawaiian news papers. NICAP interviewed several of the civilian witnesses; the crews of Air Force planes were not available. Capt. George Wilson, Pan American Airways, gave the following account: "While flying a Boeing Stratocruiser at 20,000 feet on a 224 degree heading [about 900 nautical miles northeast of Honolulu] a large and bright light appeared on the horizon at 11 o'clock position [58W]. The large bright light was flanked by 3 or 4 smaller lower magnitude lights in a line below, behind and to the left of the main vehicle. The lights passed from 11 o'clock to 10 o'clock position, the formation made an abrupt right turn and disappeared to the south." The co-pilot, Richard Lorenzen, and Flight Engineer Bob Scott, also saw the UFOs. Lorenzen commented that "the rate of closure with us was much greater than any I had ever experienced before. It was not until the object turned that I was able to distinguish the smaller lights associated with it." First Officer D. W. Frost, on another Pan American flight in the vicinity, reported essentially the same phenomenon. The UFOs were also observed by Air Force bomber crews, a Slick Airways plane, and a Canadian Pacific airliner. Capt. Lloyd Moffait, pilot of the Canadian airliner, told the press: "You can take it from me they were there. I never saw anything like it in my life and there are four of us who saw the same thing at the same time." For about 10 minutes at 7:00 a.m. (Honolulu time), September 21, 1961, two airliners and a U.S. ship at sea observed a UFO simultaneously. The object passed overhead, apparently at extremely high altitude, angling southeasterly above the North Pacific. (See map.) Reports from the Federal Aviation Agency, and the U.S. Navy Oceanographic Office publication "Notice to Mariners," establish the following facts. At 1700 Greenwich Mean Time, the S.S. Iberville, north and east of Midway Island, noticed a white object about 20 degrees above the NW horizon. Its apparent angular size was about I degree (twice the apparent size of the full moon). For about 10 minutes, the UFO was observed passing over the ship headed southeast. As it neared the ship's meridian, it resembled a huge halo with a bright object in the center. The apparent size in creased to over four times the size of the full moon. [See Notice to Mariners report, reproduced below.] At the same time, a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) airliner about 800 miles northeast of the ship saw the object overtake the plane. From a steep angle above the plane, the UFO continued southeasterly and disappeared over the horizon. Capt. H. F. Griffin described the UFO as "like a large smoke ring about 2 degrees in diameter [about 4 times the size of the full moon]." He said the center of the ring was clear sky, and once a star was visible through it. A ray of light seemed to project downward from the object. A Pan American Airways plane, about 400 miles southeast of Capt. Griffin's position, confirmed the report. The pilot re-
ported a doughnut-shaped object moving easterly about l0 degrees above the horizon. [66.] The Soviet Union announced a few days later that they had successfully test fired a multi-stage carrier rocket over the pacific (exact date not on record). However, the reported size of the UFO was far too large to be explained as a rocket payload.
Second Officer William C. Ash of the American S. S. Iberville, Capt. M. O. Vinson, Master, reported the following: "At 1700 G.M.T. on September 21, 1961, while in lat. 31°30' N., long. 175°30' E., a few minutes before morning twilight, a white opaque mass about twice the size of a full moon appeared in the northwest at an elevation of about 20'. It continued to climb toward the zenith and at about an elevation of 40' the mass opened gradually to appear as a huge halo with a satellite in the center having very nearly the brightness of a first magnitude star. By the time it reached the zenith it had more than doubled in size reaching its maximum at the zenith and then diminishing as it proceeded to the southeast. As it diminished it continued to decrease In size hut did not appear to shrink into a corona as it had appeared but rather faded out completely at an elevation of approximately 20'. The entire mass was in view for approximately 8 to 10 minutes." Weather partly cloudy, wind NW force 2, slight sea and small NW swell temperatures: dry 74 degrees F., wet 67 degrees F., sea 79 degrees F. (N.M. 43/61.)
About 150 miles south of Goose Bay, Labrador, above the North Atlantic, another BOAC pilot observed UFO activity June 30, 1954. Capt. James Howard described the sighting to the London Sunday Chronicle: "I had taken off from Idlewild airfield New York at 5 o'clock... headed northeast across the St. Lawrence River. . . It was 9:05 p.m. Labrador time and we were about twenty minutes' flying time northeast of Seven Islands when I first sighted the thing." The UFO first appeared as a "dark blob" in the distance, similar to a flak burst, with smaller objects around it. "As near as l can describe it," Capt. Howard said, "it was something like an inverted pear suspended in the sky." The object was to the port side of the Stratocruiser, in a westerly direction. Capt. Howard pointed out the UFO to his co-pilot, Lee Boyd, and they noticed that it was moving on a course parallel to the plane. The smaller objects were stretched out in a line, in front of and behind the larger object. Anticipating the questions that would come when he reported this, Capt. Howard counted the smaller objects several times. "Six. Always six. Sometimes there were three stretched out in front and three behind. Sometimes five stretched out in line ahead and only one behind." To rule out a flight of normal aircraft, Capt. Howard radioed Goose Bay. A minute later they replied: "No other traffic in your area." When he described the UFOs, Goose Bay said they would send a fighter to investigate. As the pilots continued to watch, the large UFO appeared to change shape. "It turned into what looked like a flying arrow - an enormous delta-winged plane turning in to close with us." The object appeared to grow larger, as if coming closer, but then changed shape again and seemed to hold its distance. Now it appeared more flattened and elongated, as the smaller objects continued to maneuver around. The other members of the crew crowded forward to watch: George Allen, navigator; Doug Cox, radio officer; Dan Godfrey, engineer; and Bill Stewart, engineer. They all saw it, as did the stewardess Daphne Webster and many of the passengers. The navigator lined the UFOs up with the window frame, and reported that they pulled ahead of the plane once, then dropped back. This reduced the possibility that the "objects" actually were some kind of illusion. In a short time, the fighter pilot called in and said he was about 20 miles off at higher altitude. Capt. Howard confirmed that the UFOs were still pacing his plane. When the fighter pilot asked how they looked, Capt. Howard turned to look again. The small satellite objects had suddenly vanished. He asked the navigator what had happened. Allen replied: "It looked to me as though they went inside the big one." At that moment, the remaining UFO began to diminish rapidly in size, apparently moving away at terrific speed. In a matter of seconds, the UFO diminished to a pinpoint, then disappeared. Eighteen minutes had elapsed since the first sighting. Capt. Howard called it "the strangest eighty-mile journey of my life." When they landed at Goose Day, the crew was interrogated by a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer. "It was a solid thing," Capt. Howard concluded. "I'm sure of that. Maneuverable and controlled intelligently - a sort of base ship linked somehow with those smaller attendant satellites. It must have been some weird form of space ship from another world." NOTES
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