about 10 minutes from 8.15 p.m. to 9.35 p.m., but really didn't give it a second thought. It changed colour through a wide range of shades but on planets do that in that position. A number of passengers discussed the object and wondered what it could be. Captain Rainbow asked me what I thought it was, but he did not offer any theory then. He saw the thing for much longer period than I did. I was a bit concerned about it at the time, but a number of people have asked me about it since so I am having a theory checked.
Asked to comment on Captain Rainbow's statement that the object was only 15 miles distant, Air Commodore Cohen said it was very difficult to judge distances at night. He had himself seen similar things on night flights previously.
When he landed in an N.A.C. passenger flight at Kaitaia this afternoon, Captain Rainbow said it was not a planet, nor a comet or meteor, although first I thought it was a planet. We first saw it astern and I put the plane in automatic pilot, steering a steady course. In about four or five minutes the object had overtaken the plane and was slightly ahead of it. I have never seen a planet move like that.
My co-pilot (First Officer S. G. Rounce) couldn't make anything of either, although we kept it under observation for quite a while. The only thing about it was that the light brightened and then dimmed regularly about every three seconds.
It is easy enough to say it was a planet but we saw it moving in and out of the top of a layer of stratus cloud. We whistled the plane up to 9000 feet and the object climbed with us.
I have read one or two books about these things, Captain Rainbow added. Our experience tallied with descriptions I have read of similar objects sighted by pilots in overseas countries.
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The report said that the strange light was seen low in the western sky between 8.06pm and 8.11pm on Monday, Oct. 31. Venus could have been observed in the approximate position of the light when it was first sighted from the aircraft flying at 8000 feet between Wanganui and Auckland.
Since the captain of the aircraft (Captain W. T. Rainbow) states that the direction of flight of the aircraft was not altered during the time the light was in sight, the H.N.Z.A.F. cannot explain the apparent movement of the light or establish definitely that it was Venus, says the report. The occulting or apparent flashing of the light could be caused by the presence of cloud between the light and the moving aircraft.
It is common for planets low in the sky to scintillate. At 8000 feet, in position 38 degrees south 175 degrees east (the approximate position of the aircraft when the light was seen) the setting time for Venus on October 31 was 8.19pm.
The report also makes brief mention of vapour trails seen in the sky on the same evening. These were caused by Vampire aircraft from Ohakea carrying out high-level night cross-country exercises.