Spotlight on UFOs

Northern News | Wednesday, 25 July 2007

A rise in UFO sightings in New Zealand has prompted UFO researchers to design a system for reporting alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects.

New Zealand UFO research network UFOCUS NZ says it has received 48 reports of strange objects in New Zealand skies in the last year.

"Some reports were explained by natural phenomena or other conventional causes, but the majority couldn?t be similarly explained," says UFOCUS NZ reported sighting investigator Graeme Opie.

Mr Opie, who works as an air traffic controller at Hamilton Airport, designed the reporting system in line with those developed by leading international UFO researchers, to help people know what to do during and after a UFO sighting.

The system provides people with step-by-step advice on how to document what they saw, the circumstances in which they experienced the sighting and any effect it had on them.

Details on how to report a sighting and complete a report form are on UFOCUS NZ's web site, www.ufocusnz.org.nz.

"It's vital a person writes down and sketches as many details of what they observed as soon as possible after the event," says Mr Opie.

Formally documenting reported sightings will allow UFOCUS NZ to investigate UFOs more efficiently and lead to more comprehensive research into UFOs, he says.

New Zealand has a rich history of UFO sightings, says Mr Opie.

These include the renowned 'Kaikoura lights', the Ngatea 'landing site' mystery, and the Gisborne 'UFO flap' of the late 1970s, which included claimed sightings of silver-suited humanoids in the Waimata Valley.

Mr Opie was on duty at Hamilton Airport in 1995 when he sighted, 'a spherical silver object with a pulsing pink bow wave in front and sparkling orange tail?.

"It was travelling extremely fast as it crossed my field of vision," he says.

The object was seen by people across the central North Island as it sped from seaward off Tauranga before disappearing near Waitomo, says Mr Opie.

Witness interviews proved that the object was not a meteorite or a fireball as proposed by a Carter Observatory spokesman in Wellington, he says.

The Air Traffic Control radar centre confirmed there were no aircraft in the area.

"I consider that what I saw from the control tower was definitely some form of controlled UFO-type craft of unknown origin and technology.

"I happened to be looking in the right direction at the right time. I found it most interesting that it didn't appear on radar screens."

UFOCUS NZ hosts a first international 'Future Perspectives' Conference on UFOs and related subjects in Rotorua on September 29 and 30.

Leading international and New Zealand researchers will speak at the conference and respond to conference goers queries.

The conference will also consider the latest research and photos on UFO sightings in New Zealand and throughout the world.