Sir Francis Chichester Recounts His 1931 Sighting - Earliest UFO Report On Film?

In 1931, Sir Francis Chichester made the first solo flight across the Tasman Sea from East to West, New Zealand to Australia. This epic journey was completed in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth bi-plane.

In this film he recounts his encounter of a mysterious UFO during that journey. This is one of, if not, the earliest UFO eye witness testimony recorded on film.

a reply to: HotblackDesiato

This is the first I've ever heard of this and the video is remarkable. It could have been an hallucination of sorts, given the circumstances, but if it was a real object outside of his plane that then became transparent/thinned out to where he could see the water underneath, well then, that is a mystery! Hard to know without more information, but it is certainly interesting!

Thank you for posting!

- AB

Fantastic Thread and video.
Let's put this along side the other
really good pre 1947 hyperbole free UFO sightings.

a reply to: HotblackDesiato

Hi mate, certainly an interesting account and Xtraeme made a thread on this sighting a while back.

Aviation Pioneer, Sir Francis Chichester, Sights UFO


SecretKnowledge also recently made this one.

Aviation Pioneer Sees UFO in 1931

Cheers.

Here is a ufo shot taken over Vancouver city hall....1937.......
looks kind of as the man described.....perhaps a related sighting though a few years between....?



www.ufobc.com...

a reply to: stirling
Star for you!
That does match the description nearly exactly.

I look forward to reading that article. Has it been discussed on ATS???

peace,
AB

a reply to: stirling

Wow, that one is almost the same from the middle age painting..

I will try to put a picture up.

a reply to: HotblackDesiato
But did Sir Francis say anything about it at the time?
He did write a book about the journey, "Alone over the Tasman Sea".

P.S. I see a later post has an extract from his 1964 book, but a comment made at the time would have been more free from the influence of ufology.