Case · UFO Afrinews No 2, June 1989
Zimbabwe Air Force jets chase a French weather balloon
between Bulawayo and Gweru air base, Gweru, Zimbabwe
What was reported
Hind recounts that two Zimbabwe Air Force jets once chased an object drifting from Bulawayo towards their base at Gweru, and the Commander of the Air Force agreed it was unidentified. Hind subsequently learned that the day before, the French Space Agency had released a 40-metre weather balloon from South Africa which had drifted into Zimbabwean airspace, and she passed this to the Air Force. The Commander refused the explanation, insisting his pilots knew an unidentified when they saw one. Hind offers it, wryly, as the mirror image of Rosmead: there the sceptic who would not look, here the believer who would not listen. No date is printed.
What Hind made of it
Hind is satisfied the object was the French Space Agency balloon and notes the Commander's refusal to accept it.
Explanation offered
40-metre weather balloon released by the French Space Agency from South Africa the previous day
In their words
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My pilots know an unidentified when they see one
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You just can't win, can you?
Cross references
- Rosmead Tennis Court Affair (contrasting case in the same essay)
Connected
An Early UAP in Zimbabwe: the R. family and the Vampire jetsCase fileSame behaviour
The only two accounts of military jets engaging an object over the Gweru area: the Air Force pair chasing what Hind identified as a French balloon, and the three unlit Vampires roaring over the R. family. One of the two ended in an identification, which is the most useful thing the pairing offers.
Unusual LITS in Gweru, 11th August 1990Case fileSame place
Identical coordinates (-19.4616, 29.8206), shared with 11-16-2 as well. All three are geocoded to the Gweru town anchor, so every distance these three show to Thornhill, RAF Moffat and the Gweru substation is a property of the geocoder, not of where anyone stood.