The 1954 Sea Fury Incident

Here's an interesting UFO sighting from the 50's.

It has been investigated by both Dr Hynek and Bill Chalker and has yet been given a reasonable explanation as to what was seen.

Lieutenant J.A. O'Farrell was returning to Royal Australian Navy Air Station Nowra after a night cross country in a Sea Fury aircraft. After contacting Nowra at about 1910 hours, O'Farrell saw a very bright light closing fast at one o'clock. It crossed in front of his aircraft taking up position on his port beam, where it appeared to orbit. A second and similar light was observed at nine o'clock. It passed about a mile in from of the Sea Fury and then turned in the position where the first light was observed.

According to O'Farrell, the apparent crossing speeds of the lights were the fastest he had ever encountered. He had been flying at 220 knots. O'Farrell contacted Nowra who in turn confirmed that they had two radar "paints" in company with him. The radar operator, Petty Officer Keith Jessop, confirmed the presence of 2 objects near the Sea Fury on the G.C.I. remote display. The two lights reformed at nine o'clock and then disappeared on a north easterly heading.

O'Farrell was said to be visibly shaken by the incident and was instructed to have a medical examination after he landed, also, without his knowledge, steps were taken to see if he had been drinking before he took flight.

Here's O'Farrell's account of the radio transmission between himself and the radar operator, Keith Jessop:

"I said, "Nowra, this is 921. Do you have me on radar?" "And a few seconds later they came back and said, "Affirmative 921. We have you coming in from the west. We have another two contacts as well. Which one are you." "I said, "I think I'm the central one." And so they said, "Do a 180...for identification." So I did a quick 180 and then continued on around and made it a 360 back to where I was going.

"They said, "Yes, we've got you. You're the centre aircraft." I said that's correct. They then said to me, "Who are the other two aircraft," and I said, "I don't know. I was hoping you would tell me, because I didn't think there was anyone up here. "They said, "Well there shouldn't be, and they certainly shouldn't be that close to you."

"So the conversation went on like this and I was very pleased to be talking to somebody because it gave me a lot of reassurance. With that these two aircraft came in quite close to me and I could really see the dark mass and that they were quite big, but I couldn't make out any other lights or any other form of an aircraft. With that they took off and headed off to the north east at great speed.

"I was about to press the button and tell them at Nowra that the two aircraft were departing when Nowra called me up and said, "The other two aircraft appear to be departing at high speed to the north east. Is that correct?" and I said, "Yes!". And they said, "Roger, we'll see if we can track them."

They tracked them for a while and then lost them. "I came in and landed at 7.30 (1930) and when I got there there were quite a few people waiting for me. I thought it was a bit strange and so they came over, and they said, "You sure you had aircraft out there!" and I said yes.

I've tried to find any sort of testimony from Keith Jessop but have had no luck, nor have I had any luck finding more on the NDB operator's sighting of the objects or what the air traffice control officer in Mascot saw.

These older cases, to me, have a lot more going for them than anything in recent times, despite being light on information such as this one they just seem to carry more validity.





Sources:

www.theozfiles.com...
www.ufoevidence.org...

This is an interesting find. It's really creepy how he described the "dark mass" he could see right next to him and they were "really quite big" He must have been terrified.

I presume he had not been drinking?

Nice story tho, must have been bloody scary to have big masses with no identity just sitting along side you. No wonder the poor bloke was shaken.

reply to post by Chadwickus


I agree with you, it does seem to carry more validity than other more modern claims. The fact that there are records of it help a lot. That being said, this is all related to the military. Who knows, maybe it was a secret field test for a stealth plane of some sort. Maybe they wouldn't tell the pilot so he wouldn't be influenced. Perhaps it was above his pay grade?

I'm not too sure but isn't the 1950s the decade leading to the development of the first spyplanes and stealth planes (ie the Aurora?)

reply to post by Chadwickus
Nice one Chad. I think Chalker was talking about this in a Don Ecker interview last year, it's in a lot of ufologists 'best case' lists. I agree that these old cases seem a lot more compelling and lacking the counter stories we get nowadays. No flares or temperature inversions bouncing street lights of pilot visors etc.

Here's a news report...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2fc4db914a39.jpg[/atsimg]

Pilot's report...
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/683ef84c9a59.jpg[/atsimg]
Courtesy of Michael Swords and NICAP

Check out these two guys from 'the 50s' as they relate a UFO sighting in very sober terms. Ahhhh those were the days!

reply to post by Kandinsky


Awesome, thanks for the extra information.

Exactly what we're looking for!

I'm not too sure but isn't the 1950s the decade leading to the development of the first spyplanes and stealth planes (ie the Aurora?)

Actually no, stealth was started in the 1960s. There's a really good documentary on its' development done by the History Channel. Stealth really only developed in order to counteract those damn pesky Russians who had the temerity to build missiles that could knock planes down at ridiculously high altitudes, ie the Gary Powers incident with the U2. Till that point, the Americans had assumed they could just fly so high they would be untouchable. Don't forget, America went into Vietnam with the idea that traditional dogfights were a thing of the past and their Phantoms and a couple of other models didn't even mount machine guns or cannon as they were considered *unnecessary* and out dated.

reply to post by Chadwickus


"They said, "Yes, we've got you. You're the centre aircraft." I said that's correct. They then said to me, "Who are the other two aircraft," and I said, "I don't know. I was hoping you would tell me, because I didn't think there was anyone up here. "They said, "Well there shouldn't be, and they certainly shouldn't be that close to you." "

wow. i dont know if radar was as good as it is today, if that makes sense, but for the controllers to mention they should not be that close and yet he didnt see them is weird indeed.

they sure must see some interesting things up there, homegrown or not.

thanks for the interesting thread chad.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Hey Chad I just came across this case whilst looking for UFO radar reports , very interesting
Bump for attention

Originally posted by gortex

Hey Chad I just came across this case whilst looking for UFO radar reports , very interesting

Bump for attention

Gortex, good bump and great thread -here's what Dr James Mcdonald had to say about the incident in his address to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics although it really does seem difficult to find more info about this case:

"The first UFO case to command general press attention in the Australian area seems to have been a combined radar-visual sighting wherein the pilot of a Hawker Seafury from Nowra Naval Air Station visually observed two unknown objects near him as he flew from Canberra to Nowra (Ref. 43). Press descriptions revealed only that the pilot said "the two strange aircraft resembling flying saucers" were capable of speeds much beyond his Seafury fighter. He saw them flying nearby and contacted Nowra radar to ask if they had him on their scope; they informed him that they had three separate returns, at which juncture he described the unidentified objects. Under instructions from the Nowra radar operator, he executed certain maneuvers to identify himself on the scope. This confirmed the scope-identity of his aircraft vs. the unknowns. As he executed the test maneuvers, the two unknowns moved away and disappeared. No explanation of this incident was offered by Naval authorities after it was widely reported in Australian and New Zealand papers about three months after it occurred".

Professor James E. McDonald from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona

link

The incident (and more about RAAF UFO data) is also covered here in a new book about FOIA UFO documents but there's no new info on the separately located ground witnesses at Narulan and Mascot.

(Apart from the radar witness) it locked in a sighting over the NDB (non directional beacon) at Narulan, at the same time. There happened to be a guy working on the NDB. It was down at the time. He had gone to repair it. He happened to look up at the time because he saw these lights fly overhead. Also the air traffice control officer in the tower at Mascot saw them approaching him. "It was all investigated by the then RAAF guy who did it and later it was also investigated by the Joint Intelligence Bureau."

Cheers.

Australian researcher Keith Basterfield with some clarifications in data about the case and details about official documentation including a missing Joint Intelligence Bureau file.


Facts matter - the 1954 Goulburn, radar/visual event - part one

Facts matter - the 1954 Goulburn radar/visual event - part two

how this tie with other aussie pilot sightings ? sounds like Valentich sighting but the pilot not panicking and the UFO Phenomena left him alone (unlike valentich)..

i think the Sea Fury are entering the teritorry of these UFO Phenomena and they are like sending of warning of some kind. The vibe is almost like the mexican small plane who got 3 UFO escorting him over a lake.

In my opinion after studying the patterns of these encounters , i found out that these entities are teritorial, they kept to certain geographical boundaries with other entities as their neighbours. some researcher are puzzled that UFO Flaps occured on certain area and they vanished outside said area.

in occultism , it is widely known here that if you got some kind of spell or witchcraft skills, that spell and skill wont follow you if you go out of your local region. its as if there are different invisible rulers for each regions..

anyway, did anyone remember this incident ? it is UFO to the french air force hehehe (Unregistered Flying Object)

an SR-71 was flying over France, returning to its base at Mildenhall, England, when an error light illuminated in the cockpit, ostensibly, an oil pressure drop to just below nominal. It wasn't an emergency situation, but just to be safe, the pilot throttled back and reduced altitude.

The RSO contacted French air traffic control for permission to descend through 60,000 feet, into controlled airspace. The French controller denied the request unless the aircraft could provide a reservation number. Not having a "reservation number," and out of options, the SR-71 descended into French controlled airspace. France scrambled interceptors which came up to the "low and slow" SR-71.

The French pilot flew along side and demanded a reservation number to fly in controlled airspace. The SR-71 RSO told the pilot he had just given the French pilot the number out of his window (the middle-finger sign). The SR-71 pilot throttled up and the Blackbird roared away from the French fighters, leaving the French pilots astonished at the acceleration and speed of the Blackbird

reply to post by karl 12


Fantastic update karl. sorry I missed it when you posted it.

So it seems that a few of the details of the incident have changed over the years, nothing too major by the looks though, probably just a case of exaggeration as the story gets told over the years.

The key:

The key to further research on this case appears to lie with the possible locating of the missing JIB files.

I am therefore approaching the Department of Defence to see if, after 58 years, they can be located, examined and released.

I will keep you posted on my efforts.

Let's hope Keith is successful in his search.

reply to post by Chadwickus


I`ve just googled '1954 UFO wave' and there was an
extraordinary number of UFO events that year.

Maybe the US atomic tests were the catalyst for UFO incidents.

As Jim Marrs reflectively states ''the kids have found the matches''
.

Originally posted by Chadwickus
reply to post by karl 12

 

Fantastic update karl. sorry I missed it when you posted it.

So it seems that a few of the details of the incident have changed over the years, nothing too major by the looks though, probably just a case of exaggeration as the story gets told over the years.

The key:

The key to further research on this case appears to lie with the possible locating of the missing JIB files.

I am therefore approaching the Department of Defence to see if, after 58 years, they can be located, examined and released.

I will keep you posted on my efforts.

Let's hope Keith is successful in his search.

So I am I write that we should be taking the documents as the more reliable source?
That would mean this event occurred on August 31, 1954?
If so, that date is a bit of a coincidence for me.

I like the fact that the two cylinder craft both had a single light on top and no nav lights. That VERY strongly suggests the craft were not ours (military experimental craft would have the same green and red nav lights as all other craft).

New report:

See 21:30

THE ‘SEA FURY’ RADAR INCIDENT REVISITED

a reply to: karl 12

Good to see you hopping around the boards Karl. Wasnt familiar with this sighting, doesnt get much better than this.

It does remind me of another case where an object flew in formation with the plane and they called another plane to come observe it. I believe MM posted in the thread, but I cant find it at the moment. In this case it was a small metallic object instead of a bright light.

Good thread resurrection fellas.
Lots of info there.

The Mighty Hawker Seafury....





At the time, Jet fighters were basically the F86 Sabre, Mig15, Starfire, Thunderjet......which were fairly well conventional aircraft and would have been identified easily one would think.......

So enjoy reading about these "Real" encounters with strange craft.....I did notice the young pilot at the time,, described them as "Aircraft" and not UFO or Flying Saucers.....that seemed to have appeared later, and not from him.

a reply to: 111DPKING111

Hola mate good to see you and there seems to be so many aviation cases involving flying 'metallic' objects in the literature that I don't know which one you mean.



a reply to: gort51

Hey Gort, there's some good info below about official Aussie investigations and the proposal (and dismissal?) that the object involved may have been an F86 Sabre.

The Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO), the Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO), the Sea Fury encounter and UFOs


..The Sea Fury case seems to have been an important early driver in JIO's insertion into the secret UFO controversy. The DSTO involvement that supplemented the JIO history confirm the important role that Harry Turner had.

In Keith's DSTO file review he highlighted:
Sydney researcher, Bill Chalker has described, in a number of references, that in 1969 there was a proposal generated by Harry Turner for a DOD rapid investigation team to investigate UAP. When interviewed by both Bill Chalker, and by the Disclosure Australia project, Turner confirmed that George Barlow was also to be involved in this project.

Thanks to the excellent, earlier work by Sydney based researcher Bill Chalker, and his interviews with Harry Turner, and others, we have long known about some of the material on this file, even though the file itself has only just been released.

However, what we have now, are public copies of official Australian government documents, which, confirm, and build upon, Bill's earlier work.

link

Interviews with pilot and radar operator: