Kaikoura UFO hunt flies again

Thirty years ago Safe Air pilot Bill Startup saw something out the window of his Argosy freight plane that has baffled UFO sceptics and believers to this day.

Now, the famous Kaikoura UFO sightings of 1978 are to be repeated in a replicated flight in December, with Mr Startup and other crew and passengers in the plane.

Marlborough-based film maker Paul Davidson, who owns the same Argosy at the centre of the mystery – the Merchant Enterprise – said a charter flight had been arranged to follow the same path at exactly the same time on December 30.

Mr Davidson said the sightings were unique because not only were they witnessed by the two pilots, but they were also filmed by a professional news cameraman on board the flight.

Two separate radar systems tracked the mysterious lights off the Kaikoura Coast at the same time as the sightings and previous witnesses had also reported strange lights in the area.

Various theories have been put forward to explain the lights including atmospheric disturbance and distorted lights from the ground, but those aboard have no doubt what they saw.

Mr Startup, who still lives in Blenheim, said there were "lots of funny things happening" that night. He wrote a book based on his observations.

Cameraman David Crockett and journalist Quentin Fogarty were aboard the Merchant Enterprise specifically to try to see for themselves the strange lights that others had reported.

Mr Fogarty also wrote a book on the subject.

Mr Davidson said it was the first time a UFO had been seen simultaneously by trained observers, tracked by radar and filmed by a professional cameraman.

He said the flight later this year would take off from Blenheim Airport and head to Wellington, as the Merchant Enterprise had done.

It would leave Wellington Airport at 11.50pm and head for Christchurch where they first encountered the strange lights over Kaikoura.

All of those on the original flight had been invited and there would be seats available for those wanting to relive the UFO experience.

The replica flight was one of a number of events taking place to mark the "Kaikoura UFO Anniversary" in Blenheim from 28-31 December.

Also planned is a UFO Symposium at the Marlborough Research Centre, tours of the Argosy aircraft involved and the premiere of "Kaikoura – The Light Inside of Me", a contemporary musical inspired by the events of 1978.

- NZPA