On December 21, 1978, the crew of a Safe Air cargo plane flying from Blenheim to Christchurch saw strange lights around their aircraft, and Wellington air traffic control reported unknown targets on radar.
Late on December 30, an Australian TV crew led by reporter Quentin Fogarty boarded a Safe Air newspaper run from Wellington to Christchurch to film background for a story. On the flight, in the early hours of December 31, pilots Bill Startup and Bob Guard called them to the flight deck: unidentified lights were following the plane. The crew filmed them on 16 mm colour film, and Wellington radar reported targets near the aircraft.
The film was shown around the world. Explanations have included the lights of squid-fishing boats, Venus and Jupiter, and reflections; the witnesses and some scientists who studied the film have rejected them.