Theories abound on night lights

People love a mystery.

Speculation on the cause of what appeared to be floating balls of fire in the sky above Upper Moutere on Sunday night has made The Nelson Mail story about the sightings one of the most commented stories on the Stuff website.

Theories have ranged from ball lightning – a controversial atmospheric electrical phenomenon – to tissue-paper hot air balloons to unprintable joke explanations involving fire crackers and Australian rugby players.

The most knowledgeable comment came from a person who claimed to be the radar controller of the airspace above Nelson at the time. They wrote: "I can say the airspace around Nelson was busy last night, which it is not normally. The atmospheric conditions and the number of aircraft operating in the area could have easily created an illusion of something unusual."

The Nelson air traffic control tower was closed by 9.30pm on Sunday, when the lights were seen, and the radar controller was based at Christchurch airport.

Andy Boyd, the Christchurch terminal services manager for Airways Corporation of New Zealand, said he could not identify that controller for privacy reasons.

He said: "There appears to have been an air ambulance flight that arrived from Wellington near this time and it appears to have flown the normal instrument approach to the west and southwest of Nelson Airport, which would put it out towards the Kina area before moving towards the airport for landing.

"At this time of the night the aircraft would be 'lit up' with its landing lights very visible and quite bright. However, the movement of the lights would be rather slow, there would also be accompanying aircraft noise from its engines and propellers."

He added the information was "in no way a validation or confirmation of what people think they observed on Sunday night".

Mike Reed, a helicopter pilot who saw the lights from his car at the corner of Neudorf Rd and the Moutere Highway, said he had heard no aircraft noise and the lights appeared to be below the clouds.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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