- Secret documents released by the Northern Territory Government
reveal a mass of UFO sightings across the Top End, many of them unexplained.
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- The documents - declassified after 30 years under lock
and key - detail a history of UFO activity across the Territory by a wide
range of 'sighters', including RAAF crews and weather forecasters.
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- The files were classified and only became available to
the public from the National Archives in Darwin, after 30 years.
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- One sighting, by the crew of a RAAF Hercules in Darwin
in 1968, also appeared on radar, although no known aircraft was identified
in the area at the time.
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- The crew described a series of lights which crossed their
take-off path from Darwin airport, with no visible fuselage or structure.
RAAF command in Sydney said the contact may have been a foreign aircraft.
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- "The fact the sighting was made by an RAAF aircrew
and detected by the aircraft's radar leaves very little doubt ... (that
something) was in the area," RAAF command said.
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- "As the aircraft has not been identified, a violation
of our national airspace cannot be discounted."
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- Another of the secret documents, obtained by the Australian
UFO Research Association, describes a sighting by a weather bureau forecaster
at Daly Waters in November, 1966.
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- The forecaster was tracking a weather balloon with a
theodolite when he noticed a flying object in the sky.
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- He reported sighting a metallic-grey, oblong object flying
at high altitude.
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- A check with the aircraft control office in Darwin revealed
there were no aircraft in the area at the time.
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- A third file reports the sighting of a saucer-shaped
object by a group of nurses in Alice Springs in 1967.
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- The nurses spotted the UFO in the middle of the day and
said it was a silver colour with a copper band around the centre.
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- UFO archivist Dominic McNamara said there were many NT
sightings but most were unsubstantiated.
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- "The NT is a hot-spot for sightings particularly
because of its remoteness," Mr McNamara said.
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- "But the cases where people actually see substantial
objects and can describe them are the ones that stand out."
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- He said tracking down the files was an arduous task because
a serial number needed to be quoted to retrieve any file.
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- So he cross-referenced files from related items, eventually
narrowing the field to 170 documents.
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- http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16000752-13762,00.html
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