What Were the Kaikoura Lights in 1978?

Term: Argosy: the Armstrong Whitworth Argosy, a four-engine turboprop freight aircraft flown by Safe Air Ltd in New Zealand.

Term: DSIR: New Zealand’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which helped investigate the sightings.

Term: Anomalous propagation: a radar or light effect caused by unusual atmospheric conditions, which can produce false returns or apparent lights.

What Were the Kaikoura Lights in 1978?

In December 1978, the crews of two cargo flights over New Zealand’s Kaikōura coast saw moving lights, and Wellington air traffic radar reported targets nearby. On December 31, a television crew on board filmed lights and described them on tape. The Royal New Zealand Air Force and government scientists attributed the sightings to a mix of Venus, Jupiter, squid boats, car and train lights, and radar effects. The investigators also said the evidence was inconclusive. Pilots and supporters say the explanations do not cover everything.

The first flight: December 21

Pilots Vern Powell and Ian Pirie of Safe Air were flying an Argosy freighter from Blenheim to Christchurch. They observed a series of strange lights around the aircraft, and Wellington air traffic control tracked objects on radar. A second aircraft checked the area and saw nothing near the Clarence River, though radar signals in Wellington appeared to show something tracking the first plane.

The television flight: December 30 to 31

A television reporter, Quentin Fogarty, boarded a Safe Air Argosy with cameraman David Crockett and his wife Ngaire, who recorded audio. Pilots Bill Startup and Bob Guard flew the newspaper run between Wellington and Christchurch. Shortly after takeoff, the pilots saw lights over the Kaikōura coast. Crockett filmed a fast-moving bright white light. Wellington radar reported contacts ahead of the aircraft and near the Clarence River, and later returns behind it.

The footage and the recorded commentary spread around the world. The public had just seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which added to the interest.

The official investigation

The Royal New Zealand Air Force, the police, and the Carter Observatory investigated, and the results went to the National Archives. The Air Force report said that almost all the sightings could be explained by natural but unusual phenomena. It listed an unusually bright Venus, Jupiter, the lights of a squid fishing fleet reflected off clouds, car and train lights, and anomalous returns on Wellington radar. It said the crews did not seem prepared to accept they may have seen Venus, and that they did not believe they had seen a visitor from outer space.

The same report admitted that the evidence to date was inconclusive and that the sightings might be explained in due course. Investigators had difficulty accounting for the moving lights and the radar tracks.

The disagreement

The pilots and other crew members said the explanations did not fit what they saw and what their own radar showed. Pilot Bob Guard said he did not know what the objects were, though he did not believe in UFOs. Some analysts point out that investigators did not appear to interview Fogarty or the Crocketts, and did not examine the cockpit footage. In 2000, a DSIR researcher alleged that the footage had been withheld from investigators. Bruce Maccabee, an American physicist, later made his own analysis and interviewed those on both flights.

Skeptics say that Venus was very bright, that squid boats fish at night off that coast, and that radar in unusual weather can return false targets. They also say that pilots are not always good judges of distant lights at night.

What can be said

Solid: pilots, crew, and radar operators reported lights and radar targets on two flights in December 1978, and a television crew filmed lights. Unsettled: whether Venus, boats, and atmospheric effects account for everything, including the radar targets. No one has produced an object, debris, or a photograph that settles it.

In my book Disclosure: They Are Not Extraterrestrials, I mention Kaikōura among five cases that involve trained observers and instruments. This post adds the official explanations. Disclosure is available on Amazon. You can find more of my work at ckqbooks.com.

Sources

Wikipedia, Kaikoura lights. New Zealand Defence Force files declassified in 2010, reported by the Otago Daily Times, December 23, 2010. New Zealand Herald, Declassified documents: Inside Kaikoura’s 1978 UFO sightings (2021) and The Kaikōura Files (2020). Bruce Maccabee’s analysis submitted to the Royal New Zealand Air Force.