Alright, so this happened back in late December 1978, and everyone I tell about it asks me the same questions. Was it real? What was it? Do I still believe what I saw? And the answer is yes, I know what I saw that night. I was the captain of a cargo plane, been flying for Safe Air for years at that point. My name is William, and I was flying an Argosy turboprop, doing newspaper runs between Wellington, Christchurch, and Blenheim. Now, before I get into what happened on December 30th, you need to know about December 21st. That was nine days earlier. My colleagues, two other Safe Air pilots named Vernon and Ian, they were on a routine cargo flight from Blenheim to Christchurch. Around 2 in the morning, they started seeing strange lights off the Kaikoura coast. Bright lights, tracking along with their aircraft. And here's the thing, it wasn't just them seeing it. Wellington air traffic control had the objects on their radar. The pilots had them on their onboard radar too.
Vernon told me the lights were massive. Some of them looked the size of a house, he said. Others were smaller but flashing brilliantly. Five white flashing lights arranged on this craft. They'd disappear, then reappear somewhere else. The whole thing lasted several minutes. They filed a report, obviously. Word got around pretty quick. So by December 30th, there was media interest. A TV producer from Melbourne, Channel 0, he'd tracked down this reporter who was on holiday in Christchurch. Quentin was his name, I changed it for privacy. The producer also hired a freelance cameraman from Wellington, a guy named Derek, and his wife Nina who was going to handle the sound recording. They wanted to do a story, maybe catch something on film if the lights showed up again. Me and my co-pilot Robert, we were scheduled for a newspaper run that night. Late departure, around midnight on the 30th going into the 31st. Safe Air agreed to let the TV crew come along. I remember thinking it was probably going to be a quiet flight, you know what I mean? The chances of seeing anything again seemed pretty slim.
We took off from Wellington just after midnight, heading for Christchurch with a hold full of newspapers. The TV crew was set up in the back, Derek had his 16mm camera ready. Quentin was nervous, I could tell. Nina was calmer, professional. They had recording equipment, microphones, the works. We were maybe twenty minutes into the flight when Robert and I started noticing something. Off to the west, over the Kaikoura coastline, about 20 miles out. Lights. Not normal lights. They were appearing and disappearing. I called back to the crew to come up to the flight deck. Told them something was happening again. Derek came forward with his camera. He was filming through the cockpit window at first. The lights were distant but visible, this rapidly moving bright white light. And here's what made it real, we weren't the only ones seeing it. I radioed Wellington air traffic control. They confirmed they had something on their radar. Our onboard radar was showing it too. A target, exactly where we were seeing the lights.
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