Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 14 · UFO Afrinews No 3, May 1990

The Irene Township Sighting, 1975

1975 · Irene Township, about 15 km by road west of Mutare, a house facing Nyanga and surrounded by hills, Mutare, Zimbabwe

What was reported

In early 1975, on a Wednesday about 3.30 pm, Maureen T.'s children and their cousin called her outside their home at Irene Township, some 15 km west of Mutare. An object had come from behind a hill and was moving very slowly north in the dip of the hills with a constant wobble. It was silvery and metallic, flashing like a mirror each time it tipped into the sun, and shaped like two saucers cupped together. It stopped travelling but kept wobbling; the binoculars could not be found. After a while it tipped and in a flash shot up and away, not behind the hill, as fast as lightning. The following week the Umtali Post reported a couple in nearby Fern Valley seeing coloured lights in the hills. Friends suggested a bird or balloon, which she rejects.

What Hind made of it

Explanation offered
Friends suggested a bird or a balloon; witness rejects both

In their words

  • I've never seen a saucer-shaped metallic bird hover with a wobble and go up out of sight in a flash!

    Maureen T., spread 13

  • It didn't go down behind the hill, but went up and was gone : just like that, like lightning!

    Maureen T., spread 13

Cross references

  • Umtali Post
  • Fern Valley lights (same week)

Connected

  • Lights in the hills at Fern Valley (Umtali Post report)Case fileSame window

    Same week in early 1975: Maureen T.'s Wednesday 15:30 sighting at Irene Township, then the Umtali Post's report of a Fern Valley couple seeing orange and green lights in the hills on the Saturday night. Both reach Hind through Maureen T.'s single letter; the Fern Valley couple are unnamed and Hind did not investigate. Irene is c.23 km west of Mutare centre at Grand Reef; Fern Valley is south of the town, so 'not far as the crow flies' is generous.

  • Letter: G V Longstaff's steady light over Fern Valley, MutareCase fileSame window

    Both mid-1970s Mutare-area reports from white residents who reject friends' mundane explanations (bird/balloon; Venus/star). Only the approximate year and the reporting habit connect them.

  • CLOSE ENCOUNTER IN MUTARECase fileSame behaviour

    Both objects depart with sudden acceleration after a stationary phase: Irene 1975 'tipped and shot up and away as fast as lightning'; Stuart 1988 'climbed away' west and accelerated. Generic UAP-narrative feature, independent witnesses.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 3 (May 1990), spread 12-13

Nearby

Stories within 60 km