New Zealand military releases UFO files

The New Zealand military released hundreds of previously classified reports yesterday detailing claims of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings and alien encounters.

The reports, dating from 1954 to last year, were released under freedom of information laws after the New Zealand Defence Force removed names and other identifying material.

In about 2,000 pages of documents, members of the public, military personnel and commercial pilots outline close encounters, mostly involving moving lights in the sky.

Some of the accounts include drawings of flying saucers, descriptions of aliens wearing “pharaoh masks” and alleged examples of extraterrestrial writing.

Before their release, Air Force squadron leader Kavae Tamariki said the Defence Force did not have the resources to investigate UFO sightings and would not be commenting on the files’ contents.

“We’ve just been a collection point for the information. We don’t investigate or make reports, we haven’t substantiated anything in them,” he said.

One of the most comprehensive files concerns two sightings of strange lights off the South Island town of Kaikoura in 1978, one of which was captured by a television crew aboard a plane in the area.