Westall High School, 1966. Source: Herald Sun
A PR disaster
The single most negative effect of the Westall sighting on the witnesses was the overblown response by the authorities and the continuing wall of silence. If HIBAL was responsible for the sighting, it’s no surprise a recovery team was on the scene quickly (since they’d been tracking the balloon). But on this day things went further. The area was cordoned off, multiple personnel and vehicles were seen, witnesses were told to leave the area, two girls were interviewed by “men in suits”, and adult witnesses were silenced.
The PR Disaster Hypothesis explains:
The PR Disaster Hypothesis explains:
- why witnesses were told by the authorities not to speak about what happened at Westall
- why the authorities swarmed to the location and fueled rumors of a flying saucer cover-up
- why responding personnel (those not privy to the details) were made to stay silent
- why the DoS covered up the incident, which could end Project HIBAL if it became public
Samblebe cracks down
The cover-up by authorities is discussed below. Meanwhile, within the school on the day of the event, it seems the headmaster Mr Samblebe did their work for them. He was keen to shut everything down without the need for official warnings or threats. He called a special assembly where he ridiculed the notion of flying saucers and forbade anyone from speaking to the media. Greenwood was singled out: he says Samblebe accused him of "suffering from the effects of a hangover and a few things, which I wasn’t." [McD]
Kibel, who interviewed Greenwood within a few weeks of the incident, told McDonald in an audio letter: "There was no question of officials quashing the sighting... The person behind the sort of close-down on this particular sighting was the headmaster". [K]
Kibel, perhaps via Greenwood, supposes Samblebe was too scared to go outside, but there is no evidence Samblebe was anything other than a non-believer in flying saucers and annoyed about the chaos. A month after the event, the Dandenong Journal reported: "Mr Samblebe said that the flood of callers and phone calls from the Air Force down to the Flying Saucer Association interrupts the children’s studies." [DJ, May 5, 1966]
The following year, Greenwood told McDonald what another teacher had relayed to him about Samblebe's reaction to the authorities at the time: "[Samblebe] just told me that an Air Force officer had been out to the school. I was teaching at the time, and he told them that he wasn’t going to interrupt my class so that I could speak to them. After he told them to get lost, I gather." [McD]
Although McDonald and Greenwood discuss the military's involvement, Greenwood does not mention here his later story (first reported by Shane Ryan [Westall Yahoo, Aug 6, 2005]) that he was visited at home by officials: "I was then told that I hadn’t seen anything, that I’d made it all up, possibly because I was drunk, and that they would have to report that fact to the Education Department and I would lose my job. After that I was told that I would be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act..." [The Phenomenon, 2020]
Kibel, who interviewed Greenwood within a few weeks of the incident, told McDonald in an audio letter: "There was no question of officials quashing the sighting... The person behind the sort of close-down on this particular sighting was the headmaster". [K]
Kibel, perhaps via Greenwood, supposes Samblebe was too scared to go outside, but there is no evidence Samblebe was anything other than a non-believer in flying saucers and annoyed about the chaos. A month after the event, the Dandenong Journal reported: "Mr Samblebe said that the flood of callers and phone calls from the Air Force down to the Flying Saucer Association interrupts the children’s studies." [DJ, May 5, 1966]
The following year, Greenwood told McDonald what another teacher had relayed to him about Samblebe's reaction to the authorities at the time: "[Samblebe] just told me that an Air Force officer had been out to the school. I was teaching at the time, and he told them that he wasn’t going to interrupt my class so that I could speak to them. After he told them to get lost, I gather." [McD]
Although McDonald and Greenwood discuss the military's involvement, Greenwood does not mention here his later story (first reported by Shane Ryan [Westall Yahoo, Aug 6, 2005]) that he was visited at home by officials: "I was then told that I hadn’t seen anything, that I’d made it all up, possibly because I was drunk, and that they would have to report that fact to the Education Department and I would lose my job. After that I was told that I would be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act..." [The Phenomenon, 2020]
Was Greenwood officially threatened?
Andrew Greenwood is under the impression that McDonald was in Australia investigating UFOs in an official capacity. In 2021 he told Ross Coulthart: "officials from another government, 12 months later, begged me to speak about it... The [US] president... had authorized the establishment of a board of inquiry or an inquiry to inquire into issues of unidentified flying objects and they were sending out somebody..." [7NEWS Spotlight, 2021]
However, while McDonald was in Australia "officially" to research cloud physics, UFO research was a hobby. "Officially he's working for the US Navy, but in his spare time he's checking many Australian reports of UFO". [Peach et al, 1967]
If Greenwood had been threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act for speaking about what he saw, why was he, only a year later, speaking to a foreign agent (whether an official one or not) about what he saw?
David Halperin theorizes that this visit is a misremembered event that evolved from Greenwood's memory of being humiliated by headmaster Samblebe (perhaps in front of the school). Indeed it's odd that he doesn't mention it to McDonald in 1967, or to Kibel (a businessman) in 1966.
However, while McDonald was in Australia "officially" to research cloud physics, UFO research was a hobby. "Officially he's working for the US Navy, but in his spare time he's checking many Australian reports of UFO". [Peach et al, 1967]
If Greenwood had been threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act for speaking about what he saw, why was he, only a year later, speaking to a foreign agent (whether an official one or not) about what he saw?
David Halperin theorizes that this visit is a misremembered event that evolved from Greenwood's memory of being humiliated by headmaster Samblebe (perhaps in front of the school). Indeed it's odd that he doesn't mention it to McDonald in 1967, or to Kibel (a businessman) in 1966.
Men in suits
The first two students over the fence, Tanya and Jacquie, say they were called out of class to be questioned by men in suits.
Tanya was said to have been whisked away in an ambulance never to be seen again. This was an untrue story generated by rumors but repeated by the witnesses as adults, including by Shane Ryan in 2017, who described the mystery of Tanya's disappearance without adding that his director Rosie Hill had spoken to her years earlier and that there was nothing unusual about her changing schools [VUFOA-TV Victorian UFO Action, 2017]. Tanya said in 2021: "They didn’t want me to speak of the incident to absolutely anybody... One of them actually told me that it was a very special weather balloon... I know what I saw and it was definitely not a balloon." [7NEWS Spotlight feat. Ross Coulthart, 2021] To put Tanya's statement in context: it seems unlikely she knew, as a child, what a Hibal balloon and payload looked like.
My interpretation is that these men essentially told Tanya the truth about what she'd seen, although Tanya did not believe their explanation: "The implication was the Australian Government was working on something for the benefit of our country – it was secret and we should not have seen it... They made me feel very important - I was in on a secret the Communists must not find out about... I didn’t even tell my mother. I told nobody." [via Shane Ryan, Westall Facebook, Nov 23, 2021]
While I don't doubt this interview took place, some things don't add up: Tanya says it took place "a day or two later" (it would have to be Thursday, the last day of term), but Tanya doesn't explain why she never told her mother about what she'd seen on the day it happened. And while Tanya tells Coulthart the men were "definitely American", she told Rosie Jones years earlier that they were "police" (who would not have American accents). "She saw the flying saucers in the sky and recalls being interviewed by two men, who she thought were police." [Westall Facebook, Apr 12, 2016] Les M writes: "I have been asking Westall witnesses for many years who claim there were officers at the school or anybody who spoke to them about the Westall event did they have an accent and the answer is a resounding no." [Westall Facebook, Jun 16, 2018]
Jacquie A recalls: "[T]here were two men in the headmaster’s office, very well-dressed gentlemen in suits... Only one man spoke and he started off by, 'We’d like you to go through what you said happened yesterday.' He was firing questions at me fairly rapidly. Then we went into: 'And we suppose you think you saw a flying saucer... and we suppose you saw little green men'... They were certainly Australian government and I think it was part of their job to keep everything quiet and to not let the facts come out." [Westall '66, 2010]
Her account matches what would be expected by authorities hell-bent on covering up a PR disaster.
Brendan D in third form recalls a specific detail from Samblebe's special assembly - three men and two women in plain clothes told the students: "'What you saw was sort of an experimental thing and we just don’t want anyone talking about it or it going any further'... and that was sort of the end of it." [Westall '66, 2010] An unnamed student told Shane Ryan that "some men" came to his class (rather than school assembly) and told students "to be quiet and not to make up false stories about having seen something at the Grange". [Westall Yahoo, Jan 27, 2006]
Others who returned to the area in the days following the incident found barricades and trucks, men in military camouflage guarding the area, and equipment such as Geiger counters and metal detectors in use. Onlookers were told to leave. [Westall '66, 2010] Shane reports a witness who was told by military or police to keep back "as the object could explode". [Westall Facebook, Jul 7, 2022]
Tanya was said to have been whisked away in an ambulance never to be seen again. This was an untrue story generated by rumors but repeated by the witnesses as adults, including by Shane Ryan in 2017, who described the mystery of Tanya's disappearance without adding that his director Rosie Hill had spoken to her years earlier and that there was nothing unusual about her changing schools [VUFOA-TV Victorian UFO Action, 2017]. Tanya said in 2021: "They didn’t want me to speak of the incident to absolutely anybody... One of them actually told me that it was a very special weather balloon... I know what I saw and it was definitely not a balloon." [7NEWS Spotlight feat. Ross Coulthart, 2021] To put Tanya's statement in context: it seems unlikely she knew, as a child, what a Hibal balloon and payload looked like.
My interpretation is that these men essentially told Tanya the truth about what she'd seen, although Tanya did not believe their explanation: "The implication was the Australian Government was working on something for the benefit of our country – it was secret and we should not have seen it... They made me feel very important - I was in on a secret the Communists must not find out about... I didn’t even tell my mother. I told nobody." [via Shane Ryan, Westall Facebook, Nov 23, 2021]
While I don't doubt this interview took place, some things don't add up: Tanya says it took place "a day or two later" (it would have to be Thursday, the last day of term), but Tanya doesn't explain why she never told her mother about what she'd seen on the day it happened. And while Tanya tells Coulthart the men were "definitely American", she told Rosie Jones years earlier that they were "police" (who would not have American accents). "She saw the flying saucers in the sky and recalls being interviewed by two men, who she thought were police." [Westall Facebook, Apr 12, 2016] Les M writes: "I have been asking Westall witnesses for many years who claim there were officers at the school or anybody who spoke to them about the Westall event did they have an accent and the answer is a resounding no." [Westall Facebook, Jun 16, 2018]
Jacquie A recalls: "[T]here were two men in the headmaster’s office, very well-dressed gentlemen in suits... Only one man spoke and he started off by, 'We’d like you to go through what you said happened yesterday.' He was firing questions at me fairly rapidly. Then we went into: 'And we suppose you think you saw a flying saucer... and we suppose you saw little green men'... They were certainly Australian government and I think it was part of their job to keep everything quiet and to not let the facts come out." [Westall '66, 2010]
Her account matches what would be expected by authorities hell-bent on covering up a PR disaster.
Brendan D in third form recalls a specific detail from Samblebe's special assembly - three men and two women in plain clothes told the students: "'What you saw was sort of an experimental thing and we just don’t want anyone talking about it or it going any further'... and that was sort of the end of it." [Westall '66, 2010] An unnamed student told Shane Ryan that "some men" came to his class (rather than school assembly) and told students "to be quiet and not to make up false stories about having seen something at the Grange". [Westall Yahoo, Jan 27, 2006]
Others who returned to the area in the days following the incident found barricades and trucks, men in military camouflage guarding the area, and equipment such as Geiger counters and metal detectors in use. Onlookers were told to leave. [Westall '66, 2010] Shane reports a witness who was told by military or police to keep back "as the object could explode". [Westall Facebook, Jul 7, 2022]
Squib detonator from Hibal payload (photo from Thorn, 2021)
The Hibal parachute/payload had explosives that had to be immediately defused by the recovery crew: "On the return of the payload all equipment needed to be recalibrated and tested and the live detonators disabled"... "Broad [colleague] is the first person out of the vehicles and makes a beeline for the squib detonators and disconnects them, this is simply a safety issue, the detonators are enclosed but I guess small pieces of copper could damage the eyes or the explosion affect the ears." [Thorn, 2021, p.35]
Shane Ryan was contacted by family members of a former high-ranking DoS employee who claimed their father was somehow involved with the events at Westall and was told he would lose his job if he spoke about it. "He did a lot of secret work during WW2 so he was very good at maintaining security for the good of the nation." The incident "bothered my father quite considerably", according to the son who did not know the difference between a weather balloon and Hibal. [Westall Facebook, Nov 10, 2017] This man's children "really believe that his untimely death just four years later was connected to the stress that was applied to him because he tried to get answers." [Studio 10, 2016]
If this public servant knew a quarter-ton weight had almost fallen on schoolchildren, he was probably living in an eternal state of worry that it might not miss next time.
The caretaker of the school, George Sykes, whose house was in the northwest corner of the property, apparently witnessed the UFO and told his family not to talk about it. "He was adamant it was nothing ordinary" [Westall Facebook, May 1, 2021] which is a matter of interpretation, since Hibal is not ordinary but neither is it ET. In any case, the authorities were apparently successful in persuading him to stay quiet.
(Note: One of Shane Ryan's main objections to the Hibal hypothesis is that "nothing at Westall was ever retrieved" [VUFOA-TV Victorian UFO Action, 2017 and elsewhere]. If the authorities did their job properly, of course nothing would have been seen to be retrieved and nothing would have been left behind. Regardless, he also reports witnesses seeing the top soil being removed from the Grange near Eileen Rd, which is not "nothing".)
While in retrospect this hush-up seems mysterious, and certainly left the witnesses confused, the response makes sense if the authorities were highly motivated to hide their embarrassing disaster. By ridiculing the notion of flying saucers and simultaneously making the cover-up obvious, they fueled conspiracies that resulted in the witnesses believing they had seen flying saucers. Meanwhile, those in the know were required to keep silent so that Project HIBAL could continue.
In fact, this exact scenario was covered by RAAF policy...
Shane Ryan was contacted by family members of a former high-ranking DoS employee who claimed their father was somehow involved with the events at Westall and was told he would lose his job if he spoke about it. "He did a lot of secret work during WW2 so he was very good at maintaining security for the good of the nation." The incident "bothered my father quite considerably", according to the son who did not know the difference between a weather balloon and Hibal. [Westall Facebook, Nov 10, 2017] This man's children "really believe that his untimely death just four years later was connected to the stress that was applied to him because he tried to get answers." [Studio 10, 2016]
If this public servant knew a quarter-ton weight had almost fallen on schoolchildren, he was probably living in an eternal state of worry that it might not miss next time.
The caretaker of the school, George Sykes, whose house was in the northwest corner of the property, apparently witnessed the UFO and told his family not to talk about it. "He was adamant it was nothing ordinary" [Westall Facebook, May 1, 2021] which is a matter of interpretation, since Hibal is not ordinary but neither is it ET. In any case, the authorities were apparently successful in persuading him to stay quiet.
(Note: One of Shane Ryan's main objections to the Hibal hypothesis is that "nothing at Westall was ever retrieved" [VUFOA-TV Victorian UFO Action, 2017 and elsewhere]. If the authorities did their job properly, of course nothing would have been seen to be retrieved and nothing would have been left behind. Regardless, he also reports witnesses seeing the top soil being removed from the Grange near Eileen Rd, which is not "nothing".)
While in retrospect this hush-up seems mysterious, and certainly left the witnesses confused, the response makes sense if the authorities were highly motivated to hide their embarrassing disaster. By ridiculing the notion of flying saucers and simultaneously making the cover-up obvious, they fueled conspiracies that resulted in the witnesses believing they had seen flying saucers. Meanwhile, those in the know were required to keep silent so that Project HIBAL could continue.
In fact, this exact scenario was covered by RAAF policy...
The RAAF faked UFO investigations
The payload that landed in the Grange, perhaps at the SE corner near Eileen Rd, was not supposed to be seen by civilians. Not only was it a public relations disaster, it was dangerous:
- The heavy payload almost dropped on a school.
- The gondola carried secret NASA equipment.
- Explosive squibs (used to separate components in flight) were live.
- A battery fire seems to have happened, burning the grass.
- There may have been contamination of the ground by heavy metals, shards of broken equipment, or radiation.
|
A 1981 document with the National Archives of Australia (NAA) shows it was RAAF policy to fake UFO investigations as a cover for other activities. The memo finds the "burden" of investigating reports of UFOs (then called UAS) difficult to justify:
"The only advantage I see in retaining UAS investigation responsibilities are: ... it provides 'cover' if we wish to investigate some incident, not necessarily related, in more detail". [NAA: A703, 554/1/30 part 3] Was this policy in effect in 1966? The memo bolsters its case by referring to the conclusions of the Condon Report from around that time (1969) - no evidence of ET activity. The RAAF agreed with this conclusion. I have theorized that the RAAF helped out the DoS by scrambling a training exercise to distract onlookers. It's also a possibility they helped in the cover-up by stirring conspiracies about flying saucers - making their presence felt at the school and the surrounding landscape - and perhaps even creating a few of those endless "circles" to keep things interesting. |
Source: NAA: A703, 554/1/30 part 3
|
HIBAL under threat
There's one more reason for the overreaction by authorities to the Westall incident as they desperately attempted to cover up this PR disaster.
During 1966 (from April onwards), an extension of Project HIBAL was being negotiated between the Australian and US governments as the original 5-year agreement (from 1961) was about to expire. The NAA holds many documents showing a back-and-forth between agencies of the two governments discussing risks and liability "because of the real risk of injury from descending instrument packages". ($10 million insurance was recommended, in case a balloon brought down a jetliner.)
(Perhaps significantly, only three weeks after the Westall incident is a memo offering no objection to an additional launching site in the Northern Territory - a sparsely populated desert.)
During 1966 (from April onwards), an extension of Project HIBAL was being negotiated between the Australian and US governments as the original 5-year agreement (from 1961) was about to expire. The NAA holds many documents showing a back-and-forth between agencies of the two governments discussing risks and liability "because of the real risk of injury from descending instrument packages". ($10 million insurance was recommended, in case a balloon brought down a jetliner.)
(Perhaps significantly, only three weeks after the Westall incident is a memo offering no objection to an additional launching site in the Northern Territory - a sparsely populated desert.)
One of many documents discussing the extension of the expiring Project HIBAL
|
Discussion of indemnity
|
Discussion of new launching site in NT
|
Source: NAA: A1838, 694/7/23 part 2
Despite the claim that "it may well be that the risks have been proved by operating experience to be negligible", the risks were clearly being underplayed and perhaps covered up within the relevant government agencies. Steven Thorn, who worked with HIBAL from 1963, records several near-misses as well as actual damage in his 2021 memoir:
(If the Westall UFO was a Hibal balloon, Thorn either knew nothing about it or did not feel free to mention it.)
There's no doubt that the Westall incident - which almost killed schoolchildren - would have caused a PR headache for the Australian government and a scandal for NASA. It could have marked the end of Project HIBAL had it become public knowledge.
- In April 1965, the payload landed in a front yard only 30 meters from a house and 60 meters from high voltage power lines.
- A payload "just missed the State Electricity switchyard on the main electrical grid... [There] could have been a fireball if the payload had hit the SEC switchyard... [T]he political connotations would have been serious and may have terminated further flights."
- A power line was pulled down near Lake Cullulleraine, VIC: "The only power line for miles and we had to knock it down."
- Several grass fires ("people were compensated").
- A panicked technician rushed into a meeting yelling: “If that F.....g big balloon keeps rising it will hit an F.....g big jet coming in from the west”! [Thorn, 2021, p.76]
- In addition, Keith Basterfield interviewed two former DoS HIBAL personnel who said a flight in August 1966 landed on a chicken farm near Bendigo.
(If the Westall UFO was a Hibal balloon, Thorn either knew nothing about it or did not feel free to mention it.)
There's no doubt that the Westall incident - which almost killed schoolchildren - would have caused a PR headache for the Australian government and a scandal for NASA. It could have marked the end of Project HIBAL had it become public knowledge.
Sources
- Dandenong Journal (1966, May 5). Around Oakleigh with Damian: Saucer worry, p.?
- Fox, J. (Director). (2020). The Phenomenon [Film]. James Fox Productions, Farah Films. [Westall is covered from 23:45]
- Halperin, D. (2016, Jul 15). The Westall UFO – A Teacher’s Testimony (Part 2) [Blog]
- Investigation of flying saucers - policy (1972-81). A703, 554/1/30 part 3. Department of Defence. Retrieved from Internet Archive.
- Jones, R. (Director). (2010). Westall '66 [Film]. Endangered Pictures.
- Kibel, J. (1966, c.Jun). [Audio letter to James E McDonald]. Arizona Archives Online.
- McDonald, J.E. (1967, Jun 28). [Recorded interview with Andrew Greenwood]. Retrieved from YouTube.
- Peach, B. (presenter), Munro, B. (producer) (1967, Jul 4). This Day Tonight [TV broadcast]. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from YouTube.
- Project Hibal (1964-69). A1838, 694/7/23 part 2. Department of External Affairs. Retrieved from NAA.
- 7NEWS Spotlight feat. Ross Coulthart (2021, Dec 9). Secrets of the UFOs - Full Documentary [Video]. YouTube. [Westall is covered from 14:00]
- Studio 10 (2016, Jan 21). Melbourne UFO Mystery: 50 Years On [Video]. YouTube.
- Thorn, S. (2021). Project Hibal. Self-published. (Available on Amazon Kindle and National Library of Australia Trove)
- VUFOA-TV Victorian UFO Action (2017, Apr 15). WESTALL The Witnesses Speak Conference Presented By VUFOA (April 2, 2017) [Video]. YouTube.
- Westall Flying Saucer Incident Facebook Group (created 2007, Dec 2). Shane Ryan (admin). [Cited as “Westall Facebook” throughout.]
- Westall High School 1966 UFO Incident Yahoo Group (created 2005, Feb 14). Shane Ryan (admin). (via Keith Basterfield and Internet Archive). [Cited as "Westall Yahoo" throughout.]
(c) Charlie Wiser 2022
