Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 2, June 1989

Mtepatepa: bright object ejecting smaller shapes

1981 · Mtepatepa, coffee lands of a farm, Mtepatepa area, Zimbabwe

What was reported

Mrs A S Carew was on a farm in the Mtepatepa area on 8 November 1981 when, at 18:00, she saw an unidentified object travelling horizontally from north-east to south-west above the coffee lands. It was slower than a shooting star, a very bright magnesium-white light, and appeared large and low, probably conical though possibly cylindrical. As she watched, a similar smaller shape was ejected from the front of the larger body, then another and another. It lasted long enough for her to alert four other people and some African workers, who also saw it. Nothing was seen to fall to earth, but several explosions were heard later. Hind files it among brief reports of unexplained lights that may well have natural explanations.

What Hind made of it

Prefaced with the caveat that these brief reports could be meteorites, bolides, satellites or other natural phenomena unidentified at the time.

Explanation offered
Meteorite, bolide or satellite (Hind's general caveat)

In their words

  • As I watched, a similar smaller shape ejected from the front of the larger object. Then another and another.

    Mrs A S Carew, spread 19

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 2 (June 1989), spread 19

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