New Zealand Kaikoura Film Encounter 1978

On December 31, 1978, an Australian Channel 0 television crew including journalist Quentin Fogarty and cameraman David Crockett were aboard a Safe Air Ltd Argosy freighter conducting a flight specifically to investigate earlier UAP reports. Over the Kaikoura coastline, the crew filmed multiple luminous objects that paced the aircraft, changed formation, and performed maneuvers visible to both the film crew and the aircraft's crew. Wellington Air Traffic Control confirmed radar returns coinciding with the visual sightings. The 16mm film footage was subsequently analyzed by physicists at the Kodak laboratories and by US Naval Intelligence. New Zealand's Department of Defence conducted an official investigation that concluded the objects in the film were genuine unidentified phenomena and not hoaxed. The footage was broadcast in over 30 countries and remains one of the most-analyzed pieces of UAP film from the 1970s.