one slightly above the other.
"Thinking at first that these
were tracer flak, he was at once
struck by the slowness with
which they climbed. He turned
a full circle to starboard, and
again saw the lights to the
north-east, behind him on his
left, but rather larger and
brighter. They were now on a
level with him at 7000ft, and no
longer climbing.
Kept Behind
"He turned sharply to port
and made a complete orbit—
and found that the lights were
keeping behind him on the
turn. He jettisoned his long-
range tanks to obtain more
manoeuvrability and turned
tightly to port, only to find that
the lights still stayed behind.
"He then did diving turns
out to sea and flattened out at
4000ft, heading north-north-east.
The lights followed his general
direction, always astern, and
descended to about 1000ft below
him, soon climbing again when
he remained on a level course.
"The Hurricane continued
to fly on a course of 320deg
at an indicated speed of 260
m.p.h. and gradually drew
away from the lights, which
appeared to continue to fol-
low. When about five to ten
minutes from the English
coast, which he recrossed at
Hastings, he lost sight of
them.
"The lights had been visible
altogether for 15min. They ap-
peared to remain at an even
distance from one another, ex-
cept for on brief period when
they drew closer together. They
varied slightly in relative height
from time to time, but the star-
board one was always slightly
lower than the other. Had they
been wingtip lights, the aircraft
carrying them would have been
flying starboard wing down to
so familiar to me—and
somehow so reassuring,"
said Mr Lumsden.
"According to this week's re-
port, the New Zealand light was
well-behaved. The French ones,
on the other hand, seemed to be
piloted by mischievous types and
darned good fliers. Anything
that could dive, turn, and keep
station with a Hurricane in those
days certainly knew its way
about in the air."
There was no war-time ex-
planation of the "mysterious
lights, and there has not been
a completely feasible one since.
Reputation
According to some authorities,
that part of France and the
Channel gained quite a reputa-
tion for such visitations.
But the lights seem to have
emigrated to New Zealand
now—or rather to have extended
their influence all round the
world. Experiences similar to
that of last Monday night have
been reported from Europe,
America, and Australia.