UFO's (or at least UAP's) Exist

- 1 November 1989

A report of a meeting of the Wellington Skeptics

“By their definition, UFO’s or, better, UAP’s—Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, do exist”, claimed Dr Feike de Bock at a meeting attended by sixteen Wellington Skeptics, held at Victoria University on 7 February 1989. Dr de Bock, a professional geologist, is often called “de Bunk” by many of the UFO groups he has addressed. He believes that UFO/

UAP’s are a challenge to scientific technique and to the rational approach and should be studied as a phenomenon or perhaps as a group of phenomena like his own wide subject of geology.

Dr de Bock said that the vast majority of UFO/UAP’s are either explainable natural events or deliberate fakes. Perhaps one would expect that photographs taken on the scene would help the analysis of a sighting. Unfortunately, rather than helping, or providing additional evidence, more often than not they add to the problem. Most photographs turn out to be deliberate fakes. He illustrated these points with his own and published, explained and some (as yet) unexplained, photographs.

Some of de Bock’s own drawings, showing how UAP’s could be produced by natural or man-made events, added to the interest of the talk. Of all the explanations offered, the “craft from another planet” story was the least likely.

Despite natural explanations for most sightings, he said, a puzzling core remained and these offer a fascinating intellectual challenge that had led him to investigate UAP reports in New Zealand and overseas. The Wellington members were particularly interested in his anecdotes about his investigation of recent local sightings.

March 1989