GMC's fireball on the Matopos Road: date corrected to 1988

What was reported

GMC of Bulawayo, whose 'fireball' report was attached to the Botswana crash story in Afrinews 3 as dated 7 May 1989, has now confirmed to Hind, who has since met him and found him very helpful, that he saw it on 7 May 1988, a year earlier. Driving on the Matopos Road at the 29.5 km peg at 2345 in calm, clear weather, he watched for a quarter of a second a greenish object with a luminous white trail, brighter than Venus, moving fast eastward at about ten degrees and vertically below Arcturus, before it vanished above the horizon. Nothing else of significance happened. Hind prints the corrected date to show that no part of GMC's report ties in with van Greunen's tale.

What Hind made of it

With the date corrected to 1988, no part of GMC's report ties in with what van Greunen claimed.

Explanation offered
Fireball or bright meteor (implied by the description)

In their words

• It was a greenish colour with a luminous white trail

Cross references

• UFO Afrinews No 3
• Case No 21 further report, this issue

Connected

• More Lights in the Sky, Zimbabwe: EsigodiniCase fileSame behaviour

  Fast luminous object crossing low with a trail, meteor offered in both (by description for GMC's quarter-second greenish fireball on 7 May 1988; by Hind for Esigodini on 27 April 1992). Different years, both in late April or early May, which is not a known shower peak for the southern sky; treated as coincidence.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 4 (March 1991), spread 13

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• The Hawks over Bulawayo 1985 · 13 km