CE III in the Drakenstein Mountains above Paarl

What was reported

Henry, an instrumentation engineer at Paarl, told investigator J J Benitez in 1977 that one summer night in 1951, driving up the Du Toit's Kloof pass to recharge a flat battery, he was flagged down on the plateau about 11.15 pm by a man asking for water. After filling an oil can at a stream he was led into the peak's shadow, where a circular craft 10-15 m wide stood on legs with a lit ladder. Inside were four short, slender men in belted beige smocks, one hurt when a window cracked on entry. His guide described a gravity-cancelling drive of heavy fluid and magnets, pointed at the stars as home, and after 45 minutes sent him away. Next morning four faint marks remained and the can was gone. In 1989 Hind's team verified the farm, plateau and stream.

What Hind made of it

Hind says her team cannot prove or disprove Henry's story but can verify the facts: the farm Leliefontein exists (subdivided into two, no 1951 registration in Henry's name), the plateau is 13 km away at 820 m with flattened areas and a stream under a culvert, the British Rheostatic Company cannot be traced; she planned a return in June 1989.

Explanation offered
Vivid dream (rejected by the witness because the oil container had vanished); the Spanish 'H' photograph he later recognised has been labelled a hoax by Spanish ufologists, though Hind adds 'one now wonders'

In their words

• Have you any water?

• We are badly in need of water.

• Obviously our team cannot prove or disprove Henry's story, but at least, we can verify the facts.

Cross references

• J J Benitez interview, 1977
• Ignacio Cabria, Cuadernos de Ufologia, UMMO case
• Richard Heiden (brought the case to Hind's notice)
• Odd Points to Ponder p 32 (traffic silence at Du Toit's Kloof)
• Municipal Land Registry Office, Paarl, 22 February 1989
• promised follow-up June 1989
• book cover photograph of a supposed UAP over Spain with an 'H' underside

Connected

• Follow-up to Case No 7: Du Toit's Kloof CaseCase fileHind follow-up

  Henry corrects the date from 1951 to Christmas 1952 and adds propulsion detail; 05-13-1 and 17-13-1 later revert to Christmas 1951. The date never stabilises.

• Du Toit's Kloof: water for an injured occupant (summary)Case fileHind follow-up

  Recapped as Hind's 'final water case' in her water review.

• The Engineer and the Alien (Hind's Portsmouth interview with 'Henry')Case fileHind follow-up

  Portsmouth lunch interview 1 Sept 1991; new details (compulsion, seven or eight rungs, mercury-like liquid, grey seating) surface forty years after the event.

• Obituary: Henry of 'The Alien and the Engineer' (follow-up)Case fileHind follow-up

  Obituary: Henry died 15 Oct 1996 still doubting his own experience.

• DU TOIT'S KLOOF CASE (Further Reports on Previous Cases)Case fileHind follow-up

  1997 reprint set beside Podkletnov/Hayasaka gyroscope claims to argue the propulsion story was prescient.

• Henry, the engineer of Paarl: short visitors in laboratory coatsCase fileHind follow-up

  Used in Hind's Alien Analysis as a contact whose entities never named an origin. Seventh report of one 1951/52 event.

• More Strange Lights in the Sky: a) Cape TownCase fileNamed person

  Prier Wintle: on Hind's Feb 1989 Du Toit's Kloof verification team, then himself the Mowbray 1996 witness. Investigator turned witness.

• Blue-green oval over Du Toit's KloofCase fileSame place

  Du Toit's Kloof: Henry's 1951/52 landing near the summit and Mrs T's 1981 blue-green oval on the Worcester side, 29 km apart. Both are Boland mountain cases 61-89 km from the centroid, not Peninsula cases; the 89 km radius pulls them in.

• Letter from 'Ray', Cape Town: three orange-red dots on a Wellington slideCase fileSame place

  Ray's 1977 Wellington valley slide is 11 km from Paarl where Henry worked; the dots were not seen by eye and the Maccabee analysis is never reported back.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 2 (June 1989), spread 15-18

In the archive

This case became a story on this site.

1951 · South Africa

The engineer and the stranger on Du Toit's Kloof

Near midnight on the pass a stranger asked an engineer for water. He filled an oil can at a spring and, he said, was led into a craft with four men inside.

Single witness