Sightings in PNG of Unidentified Flying Objects
Patrick Nomos | 26/11/2018
The sightings on 9 November, 2018 of fast-moving bright lights in the sky by commercial airline pilots flying passenger jets near Shannon Airport, Ireland, now being investigated by the Irish Aviation Authority, has revived international interest in the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO). These recent sightings reminded me of a story told to me by my mother of a flying object she and her eldest sister observed in central Buka Island, Papua New Guinea on a still, moonlit night in mid-1967.
My mother, who was 10 years old at the time, clearly recalls sighting a large, box-shaped object with two protruding "legs" underneath it as she crossed the primary school playing field towards her house, in the company of her eldest sister. The object drifted slowly overhead just higher than the nearby coconut trees (approximately 30 metres), until it was out of sight, emitting neither light nor sound. When she reached home a few minutes later, and asked her parents what she and her sister had just seen, they immediately named it using the local words meaning, "dead men wrapped in cloth", indicating that they were familiar with this phenomenon.
The most detailed recordings of sightings of UFOs in Papua New Guinea are those of Anglican priest Fr. William Booth Gill and 37 other staff members of the Boianai Anglican Mission, Milne Bay Province on the evenings of 26th and 27th of June, 1959. Boianai Mission is located 14 metres above sea level on the coast of Goodenough Bay, near Dogura Bay.
According to Fr Gill's notes, on the evening of 26 June, 1959 he saw a bright, white light in the north-western sky that appeared to be approaching the mission station, eventually hovering about 100m above. The light was being emitted from a solid and circular-shaped object, with a wide base containing about four panels, and narrower upper section. The panels seemed to glow a little more brightly than the rest of the object. The object appeared to have four "legs" underneath it. At a number of intervals the object produced a blue light which shone upwards into the sky at an angle of about 45°. What looked like "men" came out of the object, onto what seemed like a deck on its top. There were four "men" in all, who appeared to be engaged in a task.
At 6pm the following day a similar object, though a little smaller than that previously sighted, returned to the same position. Although the sun had set, it was quite light for about 15 minutes. Two smaller objects were seen at the same time, stationary, one above the hills in the west and another overhead. Fr Gill's notes describe how four "men" once again came out of the larger object. He and his co-workers waved their arms at the "men" who responded by waving at the observers in return.
Although my mother didn't observe "men" on the flying object she sighted, this object did have at least two "legs" protruding from its underside, as observed by the Boianai mission staff on the flying objects they sighted. Her parents' description of what she observed - "dead men wrapped in cloth" - hints at previous such sightings in central Buka Island, where "men" may have been seen on similar flying objects, perhaps dressed in form-fitting clothing.