Southern Africa Unexplained

Case 26 · UFO Afrinews No 4, March 1991

The Vanishing Cylinder at Hangklip

1990 · Hangklip, Hottentot's Holland range, seen from Glencairn beach, False Bay, Cape, South Africa

What was reported

On the clear, beautiful afternoon of 22 August 1990 Mr C D Gaussen, 65, a retired Glencairn man who had walked the same beach for eight years, noticed a large dark cylindrical tank standing on a small peak immediately beside Hangklip in the Hottentot's Holland range, some 40 km across the bay, in air so clear he could see it in detail. It was motionless as he walked towards the railway crossing. A passing couple who knew the mountains confirmed they had never seen anything on them. About five minutes later it began to move up the mountainside, grew more elongated, sprouted lug-like 'ears' on its sides and became lighter in colour, then abruptly vanished over the summit, presumably down the far side. Gaussen considered a shadow cast by the sun or a cavern but felt this did not fit what three people watched. Pam Puxley of Cape Town investigated.

What Hind made of it

Explanation offered
A shadow projected by the sun or a cavern casting a shadow, considered and rejected by the witness

In their words

  • then developed these sort of 'ears' on the sides,and while we all watched this, it suddenly.. whoops... disappeared very quickly.

    C D Gaussen, spread 19

  • never have I seen anything unusual like I saw that day.

    C D Gaussen, spread 19

Connected

  • Alien Intervention? The Gray in the kitchen and the operating room in a truckCase fileNamed person

    Pam(ela) Puxley of Cape Town is the interviewer in 23 of 42 case reports, from Afrinews 4 (1990) to 20 (1999): 04-19-1, 06-07-1, 06-07-2, 06-08-2, 07-06-1, 07-06-2, 07-19-2, 09-11-1, 09-14-1, 09-14-2, 09-15-1, 09-17-1, 10-11-1, 12-18-1, 12-18-2, 18-05-1, 18-06-2, 18-06-3, 18-06-4, 18-07-1, 20-08-3, 20-09-1, 20-09-2. The cluster's 1990s density begins when she does; Hind herself lived in Harare.

  • Interview with Nigel Espi and his family, NoordhoekCase fileSame window

    Both 1990, southern Peninsula, the first cases from the new Cape Town investigator. Weak: Noordhoek is undated within 1990.

  • The Flying Dutchman off the CapeStorySame place

    Glencairn beach, 1939 and 1990: a crowd sees a ship under full sail that vanishes; a retired man and a passing couple watch a 'cylinder' across False Bay that vanishes over Hangklip. Same vantage point, 51 years apart, both objects across the water.

  • Sea LightCase fileSame place

    Both objects placed toward Hangklip across False Bay (42-43 km from either witness), 1990 daylight and 1993 night. Sandra's '50 m away at the base of the mountains' is incompatible with a Hangklip bearing, and 'sped toward the airport' is a different direction again (north, 19 km).

  • 'Bus' in the SkyCase fileSame behaviour

    Daylight structured object on or over a mountain skyline that lightened or reversed colour as it moved, seen by three or four people: Gaussen 1990, Avril 1993. Both are compatible with an aircraft or plume changing aspect against the light.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 4 (March 1991), spread 19

Nearby

Stories within 60 km