The Booysens Triangle, 1986

What was reported

At 2110 on 17 June 1986 six people in Booysens, Johannesburg, watched a large object cross a clear, moonless sky for roughly fifteen minutes, moving at steady speed in a straight line from north-north-east to south with only street lights below. They first took it for a Jumbo jet, but it was slower than a 747, higher than 10,000 ft and completely silent, so they ruled that out and judged it to be well over 1,000 ft across. Their sketch shows a triangle with a row of rectangular bright patches, possibly windows, along one edge, a very dark blue-grey body, vapour trails and light reflecting on thin cirrus. Two witnesses refused to go to the press, so nothing was reported, and no other accounts appeared. Hind admits the report is thin and unidentified but prints it for its resemblance to the Belgian triangle flap of March 1990.

What Hind made of it

Not in great detail and Hind cannot identify what was seen; included because it ties in with the Belgian flap of 30/31 March 1990 when the Belgian Air Force scrambled two F-16s after a distinctly triangular object was picked up on radar and seen visually.

Explanation offered
Witnesses first thought it an aircraft or Jumbo jet but ruled this out by its slowness and silence

In their words

• They felt that the object was huge, well over 1 000 ft (300m) across.

Cross references

• Belgian flap, 30/31 March 1990

Connected

• Dalene's Report: 'mother ship' and three small craft over JohannesburgCase fileSame behaviour

  Both parties first took the object for an airliner bound for Jan Smuts (a Jumbo in Booysens 1986; approach traffic at the 1991 poolside) and rejected it by comparing with a real aircraft. Booysens track NNE-S matches the Jan Smuts 03/21 runway alignment.

• O G, Randburg: three tear-drops in V formationCase fileSame behaviour

  Silent, above 10,000 ft, leaving trails, clear moonless night, aircraft considered and rejected for silence; 15 months apart, 6 km apart, both kept in Hind's shapes file without assessment.

• Report from Audrey Howell of South Africa: rounded pyramid over MidrandCase fileSame behaviour

  Triangular or three-cornered bodies that each witness tied to a European triangle wave (Hind to Belgium 1990, Howell to England April 1991); both first thought mundane (Jumbo; plastic bag or balloon).

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 4 (March 1991), spread 09

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

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