Mystery UFO sighting

By RICHARD EDMONDSON - Northern News | Wednesday, 25 July 2007

A mysterious object captured in photos taken near Kaitaia is the subject of an investigation involving an international UFO expert.

Spotlight on UFOs

New Zealand UFO researchers - UFOCUS NZ - have asked United States UFO specialist Dr Bruce Maccabee to study a series of digital photos snapped at Ahipara on April 28.

UFOCUS NZ coordinator Suzy Hansen says a man noticed a bright mark on photos he had taken of the sea and sky at sunset when he viewed the photos on his computer.

"It does not look like a cloud. It does not fit in with any of the cloud structures around it. It certainly looks like a craft," says Ms Hansen.

Dr Maccabee believes the object is a jet aircraft's vapour trail viewed end on, she says.

But air traffic control records show the nearest plane was 380km away in a different direction when the photos were taken. While the photographer was a person with some standing in the community, UFOCUS couldn't be certain the photos hadn't been manipulated.

"We are still looking with Dr Maccabee at the possibility that it may be a Photoshop hoax. However, looking at the pixilation, we certainly wouldn't think that, but he is the expert not us."

Deciding if the photos are authentic will be a fairly easy matter for the UFO specialist who is an optical physicist in the United States Navy, she says.

"The only problem is the person deleted the photos from the memory card after they downloaded them to their computer. We advise people not to do that, but this person didn't know."

If the photos are genuine, the object may be anything from a piece of space junk to an insect on the camera lens, she says.

An 'amazing silver craft' seen in skies over Tauranga recently turned out to be industrial, metallic paper.

Even if the researchers conclude the object is a craft of unknown origin and technology, they cannot assume it is extraterrestrial, she says.

"We don't claim it is a craft with little green men on board."

"There is a great deal of secret technology being developed by various countries, especially the United States.

"We are interested to know what the object is, because as responsible citizens we are entitled to know what is in our skies, what it is doing there and where it has come from."

UFOCUS has designed a system for reporting UFO sightings.