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In
the morning of July 13, 1959 at 05:30, Eileen Moreland turned
on the milking shed light, and walked across a flat paddock
surrounded by trees to bring in the small herd of cows for
milking, with a torch in her hand. It was a dark morning,
cold, with no wind, with a thick cloud layer estimated at
2000 feet. She then saw that there was a bright green light
among the clouds, which puzzled her because it was the wrong
place for the moon. When she had arrived halfway in the
yards’ meadow, she saw two large green lights “like
eyes”, surrounded by an orange circle, igniting in
the cloud and going down quickly. The worrying green light
lit all the meadow, she looked at her hands and saw that
she was bathed in this green glow too and thought that she
should not be here. She then ran among the cows bathed in
the green light into a group of pines on the other side
of the meadow and stood there to observe.
Looking
at the paddock she saw a flattish, saucer-shaped object
slowly descending from about 50 feet above the ground and
stop its smooth descent some 30 feet above the grass, hovering
about 15 feet above a group of peach trees of 10 to 15 feet
high. The ratio of height to width of the object was about
1:3, it was between 7.5 and 8 feet high and some 20 to 25
feet across. It had two circumferential rows of orange-green
“jets” set into bands at the top and bottom of
the main body. The jets were of brilliant orange color with
greenish centers, and faded to the outside through orange
to yellow. They made a faint hissing noise. They were located
on metallic bands about 1.5 feet in towards the center from
the upper and lower edges of the object.
The
object hovered motionless about 40 yards out in the center
of the paddock. When the craft stopped descending, the jets
immediately shut off and reappeared at a slight angle. Each
band of jets then began to counter-rotate at high speed,
the top band from right to left and the bottom from left
to right. The speed became so important that the bands of
light became apparently continuous “like halos”.
There was none of noises of a car or plane engine, instead,
there was a loud humming and a hissing noise of the “jets”.
The witness became apprehensive when she saw that there
was a clear, glassy dome-like structure on top of the object,
filled with a pure white light, the source of which was
not visible itself, but seemed to arise from the center
of the object. She saw that there were two figures seated
one behind the other and facing the same way a little over
an arm’s length apart. The two figures were dressed
in almost skin-tight metallic-looking suits that crinkled
and creased with each movement, and reflected the light.
The figure at the rear stood up suddenly and leaned forward
on his hands, as if to observe something between him and
the other figure in front, possibly the brightly flickering
light source. Mrs. Moreland thought that he must be a little
over 5 feet in height. She could not see the face as he
was not facing in her direction and the large silvered helmet
covered from shoulder to shoulder. The figure then sank
back to his former position while the front figure had not
moved during the observation.
After
a minute or two, the craft was slightly bent, the bands
of jets turned off, then were re-ignited, without rotation.
There was a strong hot air draught that reached Mrs. Moreland,
and the craft rose vertically with its body always at a
slight angle, accompanied by a very strong, almost unbearable
high pitched whining sound, and it was lost from sight in
the clouds. There was then a strange hot odor that Mrs.
Moreland with compared with that of pepper and that thereafter
was suggested to be the odor of ozone.
Eileen
Moreland was so dumbfounded that she remained in the group
of trees during one moment not knowing what to do. Then
she decided to resume her normal tasks and gathered the
cows, which had not reacted much to the object as only one
or two did get up. She felt shaken a little shaken and embarrassed,
not knowing at all what to make about what she had seen.
She entered then the house and woke her husband, who had
worked in night shift, and who did not make fun of her as
she had feared, but asked her whether she had had phoned
the police force or the Air Department. She told him she
had not, and although she thought nobody would believe her
she then phoned the police, who seemed interested. Her husband
phoned the Air Force at Woodbourne.
An
article about the sighting including descriptions of Mrs.
Moreland was published in the Nelson Evening Mail newspaper.
It created such interest that their farm was plagued by
hordes of inquisitive sightseers, with people wandering
all over the property, uninvited, leaving gates open, upsetting
the cows and generally creating such a nuisance that the
Morelands said that if this should happen again they would
not tell about it. Drawings of the craft and occupants were
made. She was visited by the police and a representative
of the Air Force, R. Healey, Operations Officer, and F.
Simpson, a pilot, as well as an aviation engineer, D. Thynne,
who requested a detailed sketch of the object. The Air Force
personal indicated that residual radiation had been detected
where the object was seen.
It
was later noticed that the row of fruit trees beneath the
position where the UFO had hovered died and had to be pulled
out. On the contrary, grass in the vicinity grew much faster,
becoming several times taller and much greener than grass
elsewhere. After several days, Mrs. Moreland’s hands
started to swell and patches of brown color developed on
her face. She showed these symptoms to her doctor. The swelling
gradually disappeared, but the brown patches on her face
persisted much longer, with the last spot, above her right
eyebrow, disappearing only six years later.
Craft’s
schematics based on Mrs. Moreland drawings, redrawn by Bryan
Dickenson, and confirmed by her on May 31, 1975.
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Findings
With
the December 2010 New Zealand government UFO file release
regarding this case, and with the main body of these papers
with some censored folios, still revealed fascinating further
detail, and tantalizing allusions to sensitive details.
In fact as the 1959 investigation progressed from CONFIDENTIAL
classification to TOP SECRET. Based on clues presented on
the document like a full height drawing of the ufonaut with
a great grade of detail regarding his gear and physical
characteristics, seems to indicate that Mrs. Moreland had
a “very” close encounter indeed.
The
initial story was to the effect that she had only seen a
craft descend, hover and then ascend. She subsequently told
the investigating officer about the landing of the man,
who she described as “like any other man” as far
as she could tell, though his left hand was “missing
below the wrist”. This ‘man” shouted at her
in a foreign language. In a fright she hit out with her
torch and ran for nearby trees. The man re-boarded the vehicle,
which was hovering some 10 -12 feet from the ground. It
then ascended straight up into the sky emitting a high-pitched
whistle and leaving a patch of hot air and a smell like
that of burnt pepper.
A
more in depth research can be found at the theozfiles blog
for your consideration.
Some
of the sketches presented on the 2010 declassified UFO materials
by the government of New Zealand regarding this case.
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