PURSUE Release 01: State Department UAP Cable 1, Papua New Guinea, January 28, 1985

  Port Moresby Cable

This Department of State record is a January 28, 1985 diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby concerning a Papua New Guinea inquiry into reported overflights on the evening of January 24, 1985.¹ The Department of War published the cable in PURSUE Release 01 as a State Department UAP record.²

The cable says the embassy received an informal inquiry from Papua New Guinea's National Intelligence Organization about reported sightings of high-altitude, high-speed aircraft over Papua New Guinea. The immediate trigger was a report from a National Intelligence Organization officer in Wewak that local residents had been frightened by overflights, leading the provincial premier to call a public meeting attended by the prime minister while he was in his electoral district.¹

  Wewak Overflight Reports

The UAP-relevant language appears in the cable's summary of what Papua New Guinea intelligence relayed to U.S. diplomats. The National Intelligence Organization reported "unidentified aerial phenomena" on January 24, including fast-moving objects with lights, contrails, and noise.¹

The report the organization treated as more credible came from an Air Niugini pilot who had recently taken off from Wewak for Port Moresby. According to the cable, the pilot said his radar detected aircraft moving south to north at high altitude and high speed while he was over Angoram, near 4 degrees south and 144 degrees east. The cable also records visual reports of contrails from several places in Papua New Guinea: one aircraft moving north to south around 1900 local time, and six to eight aircraft moving south to north around 2200 local time.¹

  Sketchy Aircraft Accounts

The embassy did not present the sightings as confirmed anomalous craft. It described the objects primarily as aircraft, relayed the account through Papua New Guinea intelligence, and cautioned that the information was "very sketchy" with sources unsure about flight directions.¹

The embassy also told Papua New Guinea intelligence that, based on its records and a telephone conversation with the 43rd Strategic Wing, it knew of no B-52 overflights and no U.S. aircraft in Papua New Guinea airspace on January 24. The cable asked USCINCPAC to confirm that position and provide any explanation it could for the reports.¹

  Embassy Seeks Military Check

The record matters because it captures a local public scare, a Papua New Guinea intelligence inquiry, and a U.S. diplomatic request for military clarification in a single contemporaneous cable. Its evidentiary value is not proof of an extraordinary object; it is proof that the reports were serious enough for Papua New Guinea officials to ask the U.S. Embassy whether American military aircraft were responsible.

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. war.gov ↩