Wewak, Papua New Guinea: Residents and pilot report high-speed overflights with lights

State Department cable 85 PORT MORESBY 199 of 28 January 1985 from the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby to USCINCPAC Honolulu (info 43rd Strategic Wing Andersen AFB, State, Canberra, Jakarta) reports an informal inquiry from Papua New Guinea's National Intelligence Organisation about sightings of high-altitude, high-speed aircraft over PNG on the evening of 24 January 1985. The NIO's officer in Wewak reported that local residents had been frightened by overflights, prompting the provincial premier to call a public meeting attended by the prime minister. The NIO described various reports of unidentified aerial phenomena that night, including fast-moving objects with lights, contrails and noise; the report it credited came from an Air Niugini pilot who, just after take-off from Wewak for Port Moresby, picked up on radar aircraft flying south to north at high altitude and speed while over Angoram (about 4°S 144°E). Visual sightings of contrails were also reported from various points: one aircraft moving north to south at 19:00 local and six to eight aircraft travelling south to north at 22:00 local. Based on its records and a call with the 43rd Strategic Wing, the embassy told the NIO it knew of no B-52 overflights and no U.S. aircraft in PNG airspace on 24 January, characterised the information as very sketchy, and asked USCINCPAC for confirmation and any further light on the reports. The details are taken from the records released by the U.S. Department of War (record code State Department UAP Cable 1 / DOS-UAP-D1) and do not represent an independent determination by From Beyond Space.