In its Wednesday, Nov. 29, 1961 edition, Kauai’s The Garden Island newspaper reported four sightings of UFOs over Kauai. The first sighting occurred during the week of Nov. 19, 1961, when Masa Arita of Lihue snapped a picture of a
In its Wednesday, Nov. 29, 1961 edition, Kauai’s The Garden Island newspaper reported four sightings of UFOs over Kauai.
The first sighting occurred during the week of Nov. 19, 1961, when Masa Arita of Lihue snapped a picture of a UFO above Kalapaki Beach.
Then, on Sunday afternoon, the 26th of November, Ed Roberson of Lihue reported seeing a UFO in the sky between the KTOH radio tower on Ahukini Road and Lihue town.
He said it was a shiny object that appeared to hover for several seconds, but since it was very high, he could not distinguish its shape.
Roberson supposed it could have been a weather balloon, yet he commented that he’d never observed a balloon hover like the UFO.
The following day, Monday, another sighting was made by Charles Blake of Koloa near Knudsen’s Gap.
Blake noted that the UFO moved off toward Lihue, circled for a while, and then disappeared high in the sky. The UFO was round and shiny, Blake said, but he could not determine its size.
During that week, George Kawakami of Lihue was playing golf at the Wailua Golf Course when he spotted a round UFO in the sky near the golf course that zigzagged back and forth for a few seconds over the area between Wailua and Hanamaulu.
It suddenly shot upwards and vanished behind a cloud bank. Kawakami reckoned the UFO was about 10 or 12 feet in diameter. He was sure it was not a weather balloon because it was very shiny.
At the time the UFO story was published, there were those on Kauai who suspected that the report was a hoax.
Yet, these were not the first sightings of UFOs over Kauai reported by The Garden Island newspaper.
During October 1950, Hawaiian Canneries manager Albert Horner of Wailua, Ben Iida of Lihue, Ben Ohai in Kapaa and Kumanosuke Fujita at Knudsen’s Gap also reported seeing UFOs.
