Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 2, June 1989

Bulawayo: fat oval with a brilliant blue light

1980 · Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

What was reported

R G of Bulawayo reports that at about 18:00 on 12 May 1980 the gardener knocked to ask what was in the sky. Very low, with stars looking like pinheads beside it, hung a bright, fat oval object with a circular brilliant blue light attached to its left side, the colour of an aquamarine lit from within. For ten minutes it neither moved nor made a sound, then jumped upward a short way and hovered again; it was clearly no plane or helicopter. R G called a neighbour. The object drifted slowly and low directly over their heads, climbed sharply, then shot straight up and vanished. The neighbour could only keep asking what it was. The gardener later said he had watched it for some time in daylight but had not thought to call.

What Hind made of it

Listed among brief unexplained lights, possibly natural phenomena unidentified at the time.

Explanation offered
Plane or helicopter (rejected by witness)

In their words

  • What is that in the sky?

    the gardener, as reported by R G, spread 19

  • It was definitely not a plane nor a helicopter.

    R G, spread 20

  • What is it, what is it?

    the neighbour, as reported by R G, spread 20

Connected

  • Silver Object over Ntabazinduna, 1956Case fileSame behaviour

    A silent object hangs for 10-15 minutes in daylight or at dusk, is watched by the household, is first noticed or also watched by the gardener, then vanishes (faded out where it hung in 1956; jumped, passed overhead and shot straight up in 1980). 24 years apart, and in reality 35 km apart, because the 1956 object was over Ntabazinduna hill, not the city where it is geocoded.

  • Ray Burl: rustling object over house, Famona, BulawayoCase fileSame behaviour

    A low object over a suburban house at night or dusk, hovering, moving suddenly up, down or sideways, then leaving vertically at speed; 1958 and 1980; each had three or more adult witnesses. Both are among the four 'hard' sightings in the cluster.

  • The Hawks over BulawayoStorySame behaviour

    Both end in a near-vertical climb to vanishing (R G: 'shot straight up and vanished'; the air force: 70,000 ft in a minute). The 1985 item is press-sourced with no named witness in this file, and is geocoded to Woodvale airport by choice, not by testimony; the Hawks were based at Thornhill, Gweru.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 2 (June 1989), spread 19-20

Nearby

Stories within 60 km