The Drury Film
from Flying Saucers Over Papua by the Reverend Norman E.Cruttwell
secondary source U.F.O. Encounter No.184
The story opens with T.P. Drury's sighting [Note: The initials stated in other accounts are 'T.C.'] in 1953. At the time he was Director [others state Deputy-Director] of Civil Aviation in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, stationed at Port Moresby:
"I was
standing on the coast road overlooking the Flying Boat Base at Port Moresby
with my wife and children. It was about 11:00am on August 23, 1953. The sky
was perfectly clear, which is unusual. My wife noticed a wisp of a cloud suddenly
appear in the blue sky from nowhere and start to build up rapidly into a white
puff. She called out to draw my attention to it, and I watched it rapidly
build up into a thick white mass of cumulous. There were no other clouds in
the sky and there seemed nothing to account for it.
Being interested in meteorological phenomenon I decided to take a film of
it.
Suddenly, an object like a silver dart shot out of the cloud. It was elongated in shape like a bullet. It was very clear-cut, sharp in front but apparently truncated behind, though the tail may have been hidden by the vapour trail. No wings or fins were visble. It shot out of the cloud upwards at an angle of about 45 degrees and was travelling at least five times as fast as a jet plane travelling at the speed of sound. It never slackened speed or changed direction, but simply faded upwards into the blue and its vapour faded after it. The vapour trail was very clear, dense, white and billowing, and is visible in the remaining portion of the film still in my possession. In spite of the supersonic speed and nearness of the object, there was no sound whatsoever.
I was greatly concerned about the appearance of such an extraordinary object in the sky and drove straight to Jackson's Airport and checked with Air Traffic Control. There were no unusual aircraft out, only a DC3 and a DC4. I reported the sighting to the RAAF but they were unable to account for it. I later sent them the film which was sent all over the world, but no-one could explain the object. I an absolutely certain of its reality and I know all types of aircraft. I have flown 32 of them myself."
This appears to be the first record of an unidentified flying object over the Territory of Papua New Guinea, and it remains the only one to have been photographed. Mr.Drury claims that when the film was returned to him after being sent to America and other countries, the best frames had been removed and the remainder showed only the cloud and the vapour trail.
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