Father Gill Papua New Guinea Encounter

On the evening of June 26, 1959, at the Anglican mission station at Boianai in the Territory of Papua — then under Australian administration — Reverend William Booth Gill stepped outside at approximately 6:45 PM and observed a bright light in the northwest sky descend and resolve into a large structured craft hovering above the mission. Father Gill was an experienced and long-serving Anglican missionary with an established reputation for careful observation and measured judgment.

The craft was described as circular, with a wide flat base and a raised upper section, and appeared to have four legs or supports beneath its hull. Most remarkably, the silhouettes of what appeared to be human figures — up to four at a time — were visible on the upper deck, appearing to be occupied with tasks. Father Gill waved at the figures; one appeared to wave back. He waved again; it waved again. His assistant Stephen Moi also made gestures and received apparent responses. Gill called out to other mission staff.

At its peak, approximately 38 residents of the mission — staff, students, and workers — simultaneously observed the craft and figures from the mission grounds. The encounter continued across two separate evenings: June 26 and 27, with the craft returning on successive nights. Father Gill documented the events in a contemporaneous diary entry the same evening and produced a formal written report to the Anglican Diocese dated June 29, 1959, which was forwarded to Australian authorities. The report included sketches made at the time of observation.

The Royal Australian Air Force investigated the case. Dr. J. Allen Hynek later reviewed it and described it as one of the most significant close encounter cases in the global literature — notable for the unimpeachable character of the primary witness, the unprecedented number of simultaneous corroborating witnesses at a fixed location, the contemporaneous written documentation produced before any outside influence, and the interactive quality of the encounter. The waving exchange between Father Gill and the occupants remains one of the most remarkable elements of any close encounter report, and has never been satisfactorily explained within any conventional framework.