UFO. Australia

1931 , June 10, approx. 14h30 min. places. bp.

Tasman Sea, approx. 152° 59' VD, 34° 54' s, 140 miles from Sydney

FRANCIS CHICHESTER, famous pilot and yachtsman.

"Suddenly, bright flashes appeared in several places ahead and 30 degrees to the left, similar to the brilliance of a heliograph. I saw a similar dim gray-white aircraft moving towards me. It looked incredible, but I could swear that it was exactly an aircraft like an oblong pearl. Except for one or two clouds, the sky was clear. I looked around, attracted by flashes or reflections, and when I looked back towards the device I found it had disappeared.

I rubbed my eyes, not believing it, and turned the flying boat, thinking that the device was obscured by a "blind spot". The blinding flashes continued in 4 or 5 different places, but I did not see any devices.

Then, against the background of clouds in front and to my right, I saw another or the same moving airship. I watched him closely, not looking away for a second, because I remembered what had happened before.

He approached to a distance of about a mile and suddenly disappeared. Then he reappeared close to the place of disappearance. I was watching with the utmost attention. He got even closer, and I could see a dim glow of light on his nose and back. He approached, but instead of growing in size, he shrank as he approached.

In my immediate vicinity, the object suddenly turned into its own ghost — one second I could see through it, and the next it disappeared.

I decided that I had met a small cloud that looked like an aircraft and then disintegrated, but it was clearly impossible that it would take its former shape again after that. I headed towards the flashes, but they had already disappeared too.

That was long before there was any talk of flying saucers. Whatever I've seen, it's very similar to what people now call flying saucers."