IncidentThe Kaikoura Lights (December 1978, New Zealand)

In late December 1978 Safe Air pilots on Argosy cargo flights between Blenheim and Christchurch reported luminous objects, with Wellington air traffic control reportedly tracking unidentified returns; on 30-31 December an Australian TV crew (reporter Quentin Fogarty, cameraman David Crockett) aboard the aircraft filmed the lights, with the aircraft’s ground-mapping radar reportedly showing a return matching a light. It became the most-cited Southern Hemisphere multi-modal case - eyewitnesses, audio tapes, news film, and claimed radar correlation. Strong prosaic candidates exist: former DSIR scientist William Ireland (2000) argued the film shows multiple parallel rows of lights consistent with squid-boat rigs at ~6 km, with planets (Venus, Jupiter) and anomalous radar propagation accounting for other elements; US physicist Bruce Maccabee disputed this and argued for genuine unknowns.