*?* Blogmanac June 26, 1959 | Father Gill's close encounter

In one of the best documented and most celebrated UFO experiences of all time, Australian missionary Father William Booth Gill and the entire staff and clients of an Anglican Mission at Boianai, in the former Australian colony of Papua-Niugini, saw an aerial disk-shaped object and exchanged waves with four passengers on board. The ‘close encounters’ carried over into the next two days.

For some time, a spate of alleged UFO sightings had been reported by numerous people around the mission, and Gill’s colleague Rev. Norman EG Cruttwell had been keeping records and interviewing witnesses, while Father Gill himself had been dubious. Even a sighting by his assistant, Stephen Gill Moi, who claimed to have seen an “inverted saucer” above the mission at 1 am on June 21, had left Gill skeptical.

He wrote out a formal report on Moi’s earlier sighting and sent it to Rev. D Druiry in the Church of England (Anglican) Missions home office in Sydney, Australia. In a postscript, Gill added, “My simple mind still requires scientific evidence before I can accept the ‘from out of Space’ theory … I am inclined to think that many unidentified objects are more likely to be some kind of electrical phenomenon. I prefer to wait for some bright boy to catch one and exhibit it in Martin Place [main square in Sydney – PW].”


Waving to the strangers
This new sighting, with Gill present (though why the missionary’s testimony should carry more weight than those of the other witnesses is rather telling) began at around 6.45 pm on June 26 and lasted several hours, with Gill later estimating that length of the craft was similar to five full moons lined up end to end. The priest and at least 38 of his fellow-villagers saw four human-like figures moving about on the top of the object, occasionally disappearing below, and reappearing soon after. Later, Father Gill wrote:

As we watched it ‘men’ came out from the object and appeared on what seemed to be a deck on top of the huge disc. There were four figures in all, but only occasionally were all on view at once.

At about 7:30 pm, the disc ascended and was lost from view in the clouds. About an hour later, smaller objects appeared in the sky; then, at about 8:50, the larger one that Father Gill later referred to as the “mother ship” reappeared, and the large body of observers watched the UFOs until about 10:50 pm, when clouds once again obstructed the view. Thirty-nine witnesses including William Gill signed documents attesting to their experience.



On the following two nights, the UFOs reappeared and stayed above the village for hours at a time. Gill records that he and his companions even waved to the occupants of the craft, and on the third night (Sunday June 28) one of mission teachers flashed a torchlight at the UFO. In response, the craft “swung like a pendulum,” Father Gill wrote, “presumably in recognition ... it hovered, came quite close towards the ground ... and we actually thought it was going to land, but it did not. We were very disappointed about that.”

Following his experience, the priest wrote to a friend:

Dear David,
Life is strange, isn't it? Yesterday I wrote you a letter, (which I still intend sending you) expressing opinions re the UFOs. Now, less than twenty-four hours later I have changed my views somewhat. Last night we at Boianai experienced about four hours of UFO activity, and there is no doubt whatsoever that they are handled by beings of some kind. At times it was absolutely breath-taking. Here is the report. Please pass it round, but great care must be taken as I have no other, and this, like the one I made out re. Stephen, will be sent to Nor. I would appreciate it if you could send the lot back as soon as poss.

Cheers,
Convinced Bill



More
And more
Other UFOs in the general region of Papua-Niugini


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