KAIKOURA

1. Public Record

21 December 1978. Safe Air Argosy on the Blenheim to Christchurch run. Captains Vern Powell and Ian Pirie watch lights around the aircraft over the Kaikōura ranges. That is the first night. It makes enough noise in the papers that Melbourne's Channel 0 puts a crew on a later newspaper flight.

30 to 31 December. Wellington to Christchurch after midnight. Captain Bill Startup, co-pilot Bob Guard, reporter Quentin Fogarty, cameraman David Crockett, Ngaire Crockett on a recorder. Climbing, four or five lights against the Kaikōura coast. Wellington radar says contacts fifteen miles ahead. A pulsing white light like a searchlight on the beach north of the peninsula. On the southbound and later legs a huge bright white light with a red tinge tracks above, below, in front. Crockett exposes 16 mm colour. Radar and cockpit talk sit in the later civil file. When they taxi at Christchurch the tower sees lights off Sugar Loaf Hill with the same pulse.

Two nights. A cargo run. Film that still gets shown without a type certificate.

A huge, bright white light with a red tinge to it.

2. Date of Incident

First crew 21 December 1978. Filmed night 30-31 December 1978. Official interviews into 1979.

3. Location

Kaikōura coast, South Island. Approximate 42°25 S 173°41 E.

4. Official Narrative

Radar contacts were real enough to be spoken. Official narrative later offers squid boats, planets, and weather. The film is not declared a hoax by the state. It is not declared a craft either.

5. Witness Layer

Powell and Pirie. Startup and Guard. Fogarty. The Crocketts. Wellington radar. Christchurch tower.

Wellington Radar Controller replied that they did have radar contacts 15 nautical miles ahead of the aircraft.

6. Recovery Logistics

16 mm colour. Cockpit and tower speech. No object on a hillside.

7. Assessment

A cargo-and-radar file. Keep 21 December so the film night is a second look, not a stunt invented for television. Keep Startup's red tinge. Radar ahead of the aircraft is the line sceptics have to move, not the magazine stills. Do not write squid boats as finished because some lights were low. Do not write a mothership because the camera shook.

8. Materials & Remains

Crockett film. Safe Air interviews. Radar notes. Channel 0 package.

9. Key Personnel

Bill Startup / Bob Guard : The filmed night.

David Crockett : 16 mm.

Quentin Fogarty : The reporter who boarded a newspaper run.

Vern Powell / Ian Pirie : 21 December.

10. Aftermath

The lights keep the name of a mountain range. Safe Air is gone. The film is still the best New Zealand night this archive holds.

11. Current Archive Status

Status: 21 Dec first night. 30-31 Dec film and radar. No wreckage.

Confidence: High that two Safe Air crews reported lights and that Wellington spoke radar contacts. High that 16 mm was exposed on the second night. Low that every light on the film is the same class of object. Low that squid boats cover the tracking claim.

Filing note

A December cargo run, a first night without cameras, a television crew on a newspaper flight, fifteen miles of radar talk, a red tinge Startup would not walk back, a tower that saw the pulse after the wheels were down.

The crew could not relate these lights to the Wellington radar returns. Two instruments. Two answers. That is the whole night.