Bophutatswana Airport Light, November 1989

What was reported

At about 0750 on 14 November 1989 Mr C.O., an aircraft electronics engineer with BOP AIR, the national carrier, found his fellow engineers and workers outside the hangar at Mmabatho Airport staring at a shiny object apparently hanging still in the sky. Being interested in flying objects, he sighted it through a lamp pole's superstructure from ground level and marked the spot, then phoned his wife in Mafikeng, 20 km away, who photographed it with a new 200 mm lens; the best print accompanied the report. Each time he returned to his mark the object had shifted, and cloud soon hid it. He noted fairly fast winds that morning could explain the drift. He later heard the Bophutatswana military's flying wing had sent a helicopter, which could not climb above 3,500 m while the object took evasive action and was lost to sight.

What Hind made of it

Explanation offered
Fairly fast winds that morning could account for the movement (a balloon is implied but not stated)

In their words

• the 'copter could not reach a height above 3 500 m, whilst the object took evasive action

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 4 (March 1991), spread 10