Suva, Fiji Islands, April 1963April 1963

On the morning of April 3, 1963, around 3:20 to 3:30 a.m., a bright object streaked across the sky above Fiji, spotted by military personnel, police, and civilians across the island group. The event began when a Royal New Zealand Air Force warrant officer at Suva Point noticed his bedroom filling with an intense yellowish light coming from the northwest. The light grew brighter until the night sky became as luminous as a full moon on a clear night. The object then crossed his field of vision horizontally in just 2 to 3 seconds. He got out of bed, moved to his lounge window, and watched it flare up and break apart while still in level flight, with pieces apparently falling toward the sea between two nearby islands.

The object was remarkable in appearance. It had a teardrop shape and was much larger than a typical meteor, roughly the size of a Land Rover vehicle. Its tail extended about two thirds longer than its body. The color scheme was striking: deep blue at the nose, shifting through light blue and straw tones along the body, and ending in yellow-white at the tail. The luminosity was so intense that it lit the tops of clouds and illuminated the sky without any need for artificial light. During its brief passage, the object maintained a constant speed comparable to a low-level B-57 Canberra bomber viewed from half a mile away, and appeared to fly at roughly 800 feet above Suva Harbour.

The sighting was corroborated by multiple independent witnesses. Three Fijian policemen in Ba reported seeing the object about 10 minutes before the main sighting. Members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force observed it around the same time and agreed it was moving in a southeasterly direction. Sailors aboard HMS Cook, a Royal Navy survey ship anchored off Round Island in the northern Yasawa Group, watched a large, brilliant object fall into the sea. One officer described it as looking like "a classic example of a Hollywood space ship," glowing with a greenish-white light and trailing an enormous fiery orange tail. A housewife in Tamavua also reported seeing a ball of fire in the sky. The object made no sound despite appearing very close to observers.

Weather conditions at the time were clear. A weather station at Lautoka Bay recorded cumulus clouds at 2,000 feet, calm winds, and 40 miles of visibility. The Air Force's official record card noted that "short duration tends to rule out decay" but classified the sighting as a probable meteor. The full case file, consisting of 7 pages of documents and newspaper excerpts, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.