Document · 28 February 2018
National Archives of Australia: "Flying saucers – fact or fiction?" (2018)
An article by Bill Edwards, senior reference officer at the National Archives of Australia, first published in the archive's magazine on 28 February 2018. It describes the RAAF's UFO records held in the national collection, including the 1954 Sea Fury incident and the 1978 Valentich disappearance. It summarises the archive's own records rather than the full files.
Sources: National Archives of Australia (2018)
Facts and claims
- documented The National Archives of Australia states that RAAF records of possible UFO sightings are held in the national archival collection, and that the RAAF ceased investigating sightings in 1994, reasoning that only 3 per cent of reports could not be explained by natural phenomena and that these presented little or no threat to security. Source: doc-naa-flying-saucers-2018.pdf
- documented On the Sea Fury incident: on 31 August 1954, Royal Australian Navy pilot Lt J. A. O'Farrell, returning to RAN air station Nowra on a night flight, saw first one then a second bright light flying nearby, each "a vague shape with the white light situated centrally on top". Nowra confirmed the objects on radar, and they then left to the north-east at tremendous speed. O'Farrell's report and the radar operator's confirmation are in the record. Source: doc-naa-flying-saucers-2018.pdf
- documented On Frederick Valentich's disappearance over Bass Strait in October 1978, the archive notes that later researchers suggested Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Antares, then in a bright diamond formation, could have distracted the inexperienced pilot from his instruments. Source: doc-naa-flying-saucers-2018.pdf
Connected files
Incidents
- Nowra Sea Fury incident (Australia, 1954) (documents)
More documents
- Press conference transcript: Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono (September 15, 2020)
- Japanese Cabinet written answer on the government's view of unidentified flying objects (House of Representatives, 27 February 2018)
- CEFAE annual report 2018 (Argentine Air Force), including the resolution of the Bariloche case
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 21 June 2013 (25 files)
- The National Archives: guides to the Ministry of Defence UFO files (2008–2013)
- Ministry of Defence UFO files: release of 12 July 2012 (25 files)