1978-11-15 - Buccaneer Archipelago. W. Australia (Australia) - Cigar

Encounter with a unexplainable submerged object

I was an observer working for a contractor doing coastal surveillance for the Australian Quarantine devision of the then Department of Agriculture. Post event I signed the official secrets act of the Commonwealth of Australia which forbids me to reveal details of my employment with the Australian Security Inteligence organisation when I was recruited in 1980 which unfortunatly covers this event.

I have lived with this event since then, told friends and family but NEVER gone public due to the legal ramifications. I now live in New Zealand and given the years that have passed have come to the decision that this event should be of a public record.

Flying in tango whisky xray a shrike aero commander we flew from Port Hedland in Western Australia at an altitude of 500 feet, our operational altitude, heading for the town of Derby.

It was clear skies a hot day and on board was myself, Steve Sinclair and company pilot Colin Marks and a female observer who's name I unfortunatly can not remember (I am now 65yo). The aircraft was owned by Transwest Airlines of Western Australia.

Our route took us past Cape Leveque and on to the Buccaneer Archipelago tracking coastal. I can not remember the time of day but I can tell you it was November 1978 when our aircraft was bathed in brilliant white light. It was as if someone had taken a flash photo of us, in BROAD DAYLIGHT?. We all knew this light came from BELOW us so Colin banked the aircraft so we could see behind us and that's when we saw it.

It could have been some kind of super secret submarine but it was HUGE. It was submerged in one of the many fjords but not far from the surface that we couldn't see it. I remember it like it was yesterday. Huge? About 1.5 kilometers long and 200 metres wide. Where the flash came from was a row of amazing mirror like surfaces that caught the sun and were in the process of folding up. We had several cameras on board including a aircraft mounted hasselblad so took many photos whilst doing a "sursight" back to Canberra then this thing moved. I say moved in that accelerated underwater to the extent that at 260 knots, the shrike couldn't keep up due to exhaust gas temperature flying in 40 plus degrees and Colin chose to fly on to Derby. That's when the "fun" began. We were met on the apron by the W.A. Police who said we cant leave the aircraft. No other explanation, had to pee in bottles as we were there over 3 hours making us quite angry. I remember the girl o! bserver had to use the toilet and they searched her before letting her go to some grass and urinate. We were detained until a gulfstream jet arrived then marshaled into a hanger. Suited guys sat in chairs and each of us were searched and "debriefed" as in you saw nothing. A guy in jeans seemed the odd one out and I think he was in charge. The police remained outside.

Doing coastal surveillance we return the next day after all film was removed including film from my own camera which at the time I never thought to use. The flight back was met with a military Iroquois helicopter who told us to change direction immediately. We could not follow the same flight path back but we could see lots of dust in the distance where LOTS of vehicle movement was taking place. The helicopter that intercepted us was not the only aircraft there at that time. This was taking place in the area we encountered the craft.

None of us mentioned our experiences and to date nothing has appeared in the public arena.

Proof? I have none other than saying I think I am a credible witness given my work history with the Australian Federal Government.