Westall sighting: evidence from HIBAL project technician

As part of my research into the PR Disaster Hypothesis for the Westall school sighting in 1966, in Dec 2022 I corresponded with Steven Thorn, the pseudonymous author of a memoir about the HIBAL project whose book I cited on my Westall pages. He worked at Mildura from 1963 for four years and wrote the book around 2018 (published 2021).

Some of Steven's memories in 2022 contradicted what he'd written about a few years earlier. He flew on the tracking plane for HIBAL missions and did not recall ever going further south than Charlton VIC (250km/160mi from Mildura), despite evidence of one mission reaching Bendigo (another 100km/60mi further southeast) and in his own book a mission that reached Salt Creek in SA (315km/190mi southwest). And he "did not recall any special NASA flights", only piggybacking by Adelaide University, despite describing special NASA piggyback missions in his book. I mention these examples only to show that memory is fallible.

Steven told me the crew was "sworn to secrecy" regarding the HIBAL missions, but that there was chatter in the tearoom.

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