Archive / disclosure

Disclosure: the official record

What governments, legislatures, militaries, space agencies and courts have done about unidentified aerial phenomena, in date order, each entry resting on its document. Every nation that has acted. Newest first.100 entries since 1946.

Country All US 61GB 9CA 6BR 5FR 3JP 3MX 2AR 1BE 1CL 1DK 1ES 1NZ 1PE 1SE 1SU 1UY 1VA 1
Kind All Programme 25Report 19Release 15Law 12Hearing 12Statement 11Other 2FOIA release 2Court 2

2010s

NZ Release New Zealand Defence Force

The Defence Force releases its UFO files

The New Zealand Defence Force released copied and redacted files of correspondence on unidentified flying objects dating from 1952 to 2009, declassified under the Official Information Act. This part, file AIR 39/3/3 Volume 1 titled "Flying Saucers", covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010. It holds public and military sighting reports, press clippings, saucer group newsletters and official opinions. Much of it concerns the sighting from a National Airways Corporation aircraft on 31 October 1955. Captain W. T. Rainbow told reporters the light was not a planet. The Royal New Zealand Air Force said it could not explain the light's apparent movement or establish definitely that it was Venus.

1 document·5 points
  • The NZDF states that personal details of members of the public were removed and that no other information was removed or omitted.
  • The release notice says access to the original files at Archives New Zealand is restricted until 2050, while the file's own vetting sheet gives 2025, on privacy grounds.
  • Vetting of file AIR 39/3/3 was commenced and completed on 31 August 2010, and the vetting sheet records that the file held no classified documents.
  • Press reports in the file record that the Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr T. P. Shand, ordered an investigation into the 31 October 1955 sighting, and that Air Commodore R. J. Cohen, a passenger, believed the object was Venus.
  • A 17 September 1952 note records that enquiries at Carter Observatory found lights seen by the Director of Civil Aviation were consistent with "daylight meteorites".

Documents

The register here is the record's: what a body did, when, with the document. The archive's stories carry the longer reads, and the Latest feed carries this week's official news before it is entered here. Entries from the United Kingdom rest on material under the Open Government Licence v3.