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UFOs over Papua New
Guinea
Rights to all articles are held by
the authors and permission to reprint must be sought from UFO
Research Queensland.
The full report
of Flying Saucers Over Papua by the Reverend Norman E.
Cruttwell, M.A. Oxon of the Anglican Mission in Menapi New
Guinea, from which this article is taken, is available from
the lending library of UFO Research Queensland or for sale for
$10.00 (AUD). It contains numerous reports from missionaries
and natives as well as many diagrams and illustrations.
The First
Papuan Sighting
The story opens
with Mr T.P. Drury’s sighting in 1953. At the time he was
Director of Civil Aviation in the Territory of Papua and New
Guinea, stationed at Port Moresby:
"I was standing
on the coast road overlooking the Flying Boat Base at Port
Moresby with my wife and children. It was about 11:00am on
August 23, 1953. The sky was perfectly clear, which is
unusual. My wife noticed a wisp of a cloud suddenly appear in
the blue sky from nowhere and start to build up rapidly into a
white puff. She called out to draw my attention to it, and I
watched it rapidly build up into a thick white mass of
cumulus. There were no other clouds in the sky and there
seemed nothing to account for it. Being interested in
meteorological phenomenon I decided to take a film of it.
Suddenly, an object like a silver dart shot out of the cloud.
It was elongated in shape like a bullet. It was very
clear-cut, sharp in front but apparently truncated behind,
though the tail may have been hidden by the vapour trail. No
wings or fins were visible. It shot out of the cloud upwards
at an angle of about 45 degrees and was travelling at least
five times as fast as a jet plane travelling at the speed of
sound. It never slackened speed or changed direction, but
simply faded upwards into the blue and its vapour faded after
it. The vapour trail was very clear, dense, white and
billowing, and is visible in the remaining portion of the film
still in my possession. In spite of the supersonic speed and
nearness of the object, there was no sound whatever.
"I was greatly
concerned about the appearance of such an extraordinary object
in the sky and drove straight to Jackson’s Airport and checked
with Air Traffic Control. There were no unusual aircraft out,
only a DC3 and a DC4. I reported the sighting to the RAAF but
they were unable to account for it. I later sent them the film
which was sent all over the world, but no-one could explain
the object. I am absolutely certain of its reality and I know
all types of aircraft. I have flown 32 of them myself”
This appears to
be the first record of an unidentified flying object over the
Territory of Papua New Guinea, and it remains the only one to
have been photographed. Mr Drury claims that when the film was
returned to him after being sent to America and other
countries, the best frames had been removed and the remainder
showed only the cloud and the vapour trail.
Objects over
the Papuan Gulf
Two more
objects were seen over the Gulf of Papua in 1955 and 1956.
They bore no resemblance to aircraft but were typical of the
many objects seen later in 1959.
One evening in
May 1955 a Doctor E. Nespor was returning from a swim in the
sea when he saw a large disc. It was about half the size of
the moon and glowing with a green light that moved slowly
along for about a minute before disappearing.
In 1955 or 56,
a Mr C. Jackson, Manager of Papuan Air Transport was fishing
at night on an island in the Gulf about 70 miles west of Port
Moresby. It was about 2:00am when he and his companion saw a
large round red light in the sky in the west. It was larger
than the moon and much brighter, with a blurred outlined. It
did not move laterally but appeared to increase and decrease
in size as though it were approaching and receding. It
vanished after 30 minutes.
Strange
Light over the Ninigo Islands
The following
account appeared in the South Pacific Post on November 6,
1957:
“A Patrol
Officer and four Europeans watched a strange unexplainable
light hover near their ship for 20 minutes. They were in the
Ahu passage in the Ninigo group when a strange light appeared
in the west. It assumed the appearance of a large yellow star
that hovered in place for twenty minutes, changed from yellow
to red to green and finally to crimson. It remained still for
twenty minutes, then moved violently in a small area. It
turned from crimson to green and then appeared to fall into
the sea.”
Red Light
over the Airport
In early
February 1958, it was heard over the radio on the local news
that a mysterious red light had appeared over Jackson’s
Airport, Port Moresby. It was seen by several airport
personnel and appeared as a bright red blob of light that cam
from the north east and descended to about 200 feet. It
appeared to buzz the strip, as if inspecting it.
Blue Moon
near Samarai
Previously, the
sightings had been reported by officials of the Administration
or Air Transport. In 1958 the Missionaries also started to see
things. Reports from the Catholic mission at Sideia were sent
in by the Rev. Bishop Doyle, Vicar Apostolic of Samarai. He
stated:
“In June 1958
there came from the south a round object about the size of the
moon and pale blue in colour, emitting a light brighter than
sunlight. It seem to hover in the sky over the mission, and
after about 5 minutes it moved in a northerly direction and
disappeared mid-sky.”
Lights over
Goodenough Bay
Somewhere in
June 1959, children at the Mission in Goodenough Bay saw a
light crossing the sky. It was about 7:00pm and the object
appeared to be white, like a star, and the children took it to
be a satellite. The next sighting was at Wamira on the
opposite side of the Bay. The Wamira people had come out of
the evening service at 6.30pm when they all saw a moving white
light, like a star, travelling quickly across the sky from
south to north, its light fluctuating regularly. On the same
evening, another moving light was seen by children over the
sea.
Green
Fireball
On the same
evening of the previous sighting in June 1959 a Dr K Houston
at Wamira was looking at the sky in the place where the white
light had been seen when without warning a dazzling green
flare burst forth in the sky. It appeared from nowhere at an
elevation of 60 degrees in a clear starlit sky. It moved
across the sky from north to south at a fair speed, and moved
about a quarter of the width of the sky until it appeared to
be above Cape Frere, about three miles away to the southeast.
It was dazzlingly bright and of a clear apple green. It lit up
the trees and landscape with its light, and then vanished
without a sound.
At the same
time about 1.5 miles away and two hundred feet up, the same
object was seen by Mr B Sweet of Dogura, the head mission
station. Many explanations have been suggested for this light,
but none of them fit.
The
Satellite that Changed Direction
An object was
seen for three nights in succession at Manapi, and for five at
Dogura. It was also seen at Sideia and Port Moresby, on the
other side of the Territory. The object always came from the
northwest and traveled southeast on an unvarying course. The
light took about three minutes to cross the sky, fluctuating
slowly as it went from bright to faint and bright again,
taking about 15 seconds to complete each cycle. It was at very
great height, passing behind a few high cirro-stratus clouds.
On December 1st it failed to appear, and it was never seen
again. However, the following night the following item was
broadcast over Radio News from Port Moresby:
"At
approximately 6:45pm on Monday December 1, an unidentified
flying object was seen by several residents of Boroko, a
suburb of Port Moresby. It was like a star, bluish white in
colour and of about the same magnitude as a bright star. It
traveled from east to west and disappeared low over the
western horizon. It tended to disappear every few seconds. It
was visible for three minutes, during which time it crossed
the sky from horizon to horizon.”
There can be
little doubt that this object was the same or similar to the
ones seen on previous nights over Manpim, Dogura, Wamira and
Sidea. The remarkable feature though, is the change in
direction. Even if a satellite could behave in the manner
observed, fluctuating its light and appearing regularly at the
same time, how could it conceivable change direction in 24
hours from a southeasterly to a westerly course? taking into
account the previous sightings at Menapi and Wamira, the
profusion of satellites in the sky travelling in different
directions is puzzling.
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