December 9, 1977: in air, 100 km east of Kununurra, Northern Territory, Australia

Daytime? A husband and wife were flying a light plane [Cessna 206] from Legune to Victoria River Downs, when she saw an object at an estimated 5 km distance. It was slightly lower and line-of-sight below the horizon so some estimation was possible. At first thought to be a plane, on approach the UFO resolved to be a lenticular, oval, or "surf-board" shape, apparently metallic, 9 meters long, 2 3/4ths meters wide, and perhaps only 1 meter thick. It was well-defined, and a "white-gray" dull metal color. It flew "sideways" as if it were a detached airplane wing. The witnesses did not try to guess at a velocity, although the thing was already out of sight when the husband tried to bank the plane to see more. The time of observation was 30-40 seconds. To this point, this sighting is hum-drum as far as UFO encounters go. But strangeness entered when the pilot attempted to report to the ground. "Approximately 5 minutes after this I decided to give my radio report of the position I was at, but found I was unable to speak to anyone, although I could hear other aircraft, and hear Kununurra calling us. I didn't gain radio communication until some 20-30 minutes later when I was able to raise Darwin....Every time I tried to transmit on the radio [VHF & HF] during the 20 minutes, there was complete static. The radio was fine after this period." Ace Australian UFO researcher, Keith Basterfield, considers the Kununurra incident one of the Australian "classics". (Keith Basterfield case report file [near Kununurra/ northern territory; 9th December 1977]; and ACOS Bulletin, October 1979).