Kaikoura New Zealand — TV News Crew Films UAP

In late December 1978, an Australian television crew from Channel 0 (now Network Ten) boarded a Safe Air cargo Argosy aircraft on a flight along the Kaikoura coast of New Zealand's South Island, following up on reports of strange lights seen by cargo pilots on previous nights. The film crew captured approximately 30 minutes of footage of large, bright objects maneuvering near the aircraft. The objects were tracked by Wellington Air Traffic Control on radar simultaneously with the visual observations. The Argosy's crew and the TV crew both observed the objects. On one occasion an object appeared to pace the aircraft at close range for several minutes. The footage was analyzed by the Royal Australian Air Force, which could not identify the objects or attribute them to natural phenomena. Eastman Kodak's film laboratory examined the original footage and confirmed the objects were not camera lens flares. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, a US Navy optical physicist, conducted a detailed optical and photogrammetric analysis and concluded the objects were physically large, at close range, and producing their own light. New Zealand's Civil Aviation Division investigated and closed the case as 'unexplained.' The Kaikoura footage is considered the most scientifically credible motion picture UAP footage from the Southern Hemisphere.