Many sightings ‘can be explained in conventional terms’

2000. The group is dedicated to the scientific analysis of UAP sightings. Spokesperson Suzanne Hansen has nearly 50 years of experience investigating lights in the sky.

She says her worldview was shaken in 1975 when her car was engulfed and lifted off the road by a massive white ball of light, resulting in 90 minutes of missing time. That catapulted her into researching New Zealand’s rich history of UFO sightings and close encounter/ contact experiences.

The group has examined the evidence for a multiple-witness sighting of an anomalous object in the Bay of Plenty in 2011, a 2012 sighting of a craft by a neuroscientist in Northland and a close-proximity observation of a triangular-shaped entity in the Dome Valley, north of Auckland, in 2013.

The group says its members include pilots, air traffic controllers, scientists, engineers and veteran researchers. Hansen said many sightings “can be explained in conventional terms, while others lack sufficient information. A small number of sightings may have sufficient characteristics to be considered unidentified”.

“Sighting reports received are generally sent to UFOCUS NZ staff to investigate, which involves communication with the witness(es) and a final written report, and may involve visiting sites, and having photos/videos examined by a photographic data analyst. However, many reports short on detail can be briefly dealt with by phone or email.”

To this day, Kingsley Field, now in his 80s, maintains something extraordinary happened at Nga¯ tea over 50 years ago, and he believes we are not alone.

“I have an open mind. It would be stupid to think that Earth could be the only place where life is, given the billions of galaxies we know exist outside our own.”