Melbourne, Saturday Today. I looked through the window  through which A.N.A pilot Captain Doug Barker yesterday saw his "flying mushroom"

Captain Barker stood beside me. He said he remained convinced that what he saw was no ordinary plane and no optical illusion. Captain Doug Barker's window, at East Kew, looks down the Yarra Valley used regularly by commercial aircraft as a sighting line when approaching Essendon. The window is of clear plate glass six feet wide by four feet deep, and not conducive to optical illusions.

Captain Barker described the "flying mushroom" as a clear, plastic-like, out-sized mushroom - shape object.

"Observation Car"

He said: "It appeared to have something trailing beneath it like a thick stalk. "I think it was an observation car. "It was stooging along at a fair bat, and in 12 seconds had disappeared." An airline company official said that a Convair was in the area at the time testing landing gear. An aviation expert said: "A flying mushroom---Rubbish "What a laugh." Other gave reasons why Captain Barker "did not see a flying mushroom or any other type of flying saucer." Aviation traffic superintendent at Essendon Mr. H. R. Doyle, said the radar units would pick up any objects, even those travelling at high speed. Civil Aviation Department Regional Director Mr. A.O McComb said: he believed Captain Barker saw the reflections of the Convair. "But Captain Barker stuck to his
flying mushroom story."schoolteacher who would not give her name, said: "The thing was pear-shaped, with a beam of light extending from the blunt end. It was travelling low and fast."

A constable, on his way home form Police Headquarters, said: "An oval-shaped machine sped from the sky and hovered low, about 60 feet above the ground. Scarlet flames were shooting from it. Shadows of some people, I think, could be seen for several seconds.