Frank
I agree that the Kaikoura lights leave a lot of room for mundane explanations. Many have been proposed. I have no doubt that when lights at night are at play, the most spectacular befuddlement can be produced with low or no budget and without any intention. As yet, an explanation that satisfies all...especially the radar operators, hasn't been forthcoming. But from what I have learnt from RFI...It could just as easily be a combination of non-related events that only seems connected when viewed through the filter of the Human Mind. Yeah that Iranian encounter was a goodie alright, one of my favourites.
Puddle
The film crew were flying the route to film a re-enactment of sightings 10 days previous. You are right about the footage being poor. Due to the size of the old-school camera and the cramped conditions of the cockpit, plus the position of the cameraman..he was basically limited to filming straight ahead. A great deal of the fun and games took place either side of and behind the aircraft. There are aspects that sound alot like RFI such as:
At about 0005 (12:05 A.M., local time, December 31, 1978), while they were crossing the Cook Strait, the captain and copilot first noticed oddly behaving lights ahead of them near the Kaikoura Coast. They had flown this route many times before and were thoroughly familiar with the lights along the coast so they quickly realized that these were not ordinary coastal lights. These lights would appear, seem to project a beam downward toward the sea, and then disappear, only to reappear at some other location. Sometimes there was only one, sometimes none and sometimes several. After several minutes of watching and failing to identify the lights the pilot and copilot began to discuss what they were seeing. They were puzzled over their inability to identify these
unusual lights and their odd pattern of activity, which made the captain think of a search operation. (Similar activity of unidentified lights nearer to Cape Campbell had been seen by ground witnesses at Blenheim during the UFO sightings of December 21, as mentioned above.
See Startup and Illingworth, 1980)
The whole series of events were preceeded and proceeded by equally strange goings ons, both in the sky and to some of those involved. Although our Air Force was small and outdated, no attempt at an intercept was made during the events. The event was poo-poohed by officials, yet it was classified Top Secret and an embargo of 50 or 70 years was placed on these findings. Apparently a Fella who worked at Christchurch Airport at the time recalls USAF aircraft flying around the region using unusual call signs. It might be the same fella who pushed for a release of what is known, under the FOIA, and some information will be released later this year. Christchurch Airport also doubles as an American Airbase tasked to support American interests in Antarctica. One of those Extraordinary Rendition Learjets used to kidnap CIA targets was seen there a few years back....CIA Christmas party they claimed.
Oh one other note of interest...the female sound recordist sitting in the dark at the rear of the Argosy cargo hold, reckons she had a run in with a blue light that passed through the plane. Sound familiar?