Group /Category 11 Sightings From Aircraft or Spacecraft

Richard Hall:
On February 2, 1973, Captain Peter Telling was flying a Grand Commander aircraft at 10,000 feet (3 km) over the Ohura Beacon area of New Zealand when he thought he had a fire in the starboard engine. He looked very carefully to assess what was happening. Then a sphere of intense bluish-white light over 20 feet (6 meters) in diameter appeared about 30 yards (27 meters) away, its brilliant light illuminating the cockpit. Telling said the brightness of the light was "much like a welding arc." The object paced his plane for 20-25 seconds, then accelerated and sped away.

During the period that the UFO remained near the aircraft the automatic direction finder and both the gyroscopic and magnetic compasses went haywire and spun wildly. All directional equipment remained nonfunctional until the plane passed over the Wanganui area. Telling, who also conducts a radio show, heard Vic Harris of Auckland on a talk show and contacted him to discuss the sighting.15

Source: Volume II, The UFO Evidence, A Thirty-Year Report, Richard Hall, (2001), page 131