Strange lights: Another witness comes forward

Could the strange lights over Greymouth last week be related to a rescue helicopter flight late at night? Photo / File

Another witness has come forward to back up the report of strange night lights seen over Greymouth last week.

Runanga resident Anthony Dean described seeing bright orange lights that circled and made eight passes, between 9.30pm and 10.30pm last Thursday. He said he had spoken to others who also saw them.

The lights came from the south-east and headed in a northerly direction, turning
right towards the east before disappearing and then coming back again from the south-east.

Greymouth resident Grant Ashby said today he had also watched the lights while coming out of a meeting at Barrytown.

"I came outside at 10pm and saw it, low and out to sea. Very bright," Ashby said.

From his experience, it did not fit with the rescue helicopter, which was en route to Greymouth about that time.

"It looked pretty peculiar . . . others saw it too."

Westport man John Bethell said he also saw strange lights in the sky, but that was on Saturday.

The lights were coming from the Buller Bridge area and were very high in the sky.

The lights then went out, and silhouetted against the clouds looked like a group of drones in formation.

"It was really weird."

Garden City Helicopters said yesterday it thought the lights above Greymouth could be explained as coming from the NZCC Rescue Helicopter, which was returning from a three-and-a-half-hour round trip from Greymouth-Westport-Christchurch-Greymouth about that time.