Cases Not Previously Reported: Report from John Flanagan of Bulawayo (Honey Dew farm, Chivhu, 1954)

What was reported

On the afternoon of 7 July 1954, the day his grandmother died, six-and-a-half-year-old John Flanagan was outside the family farmhouse on a kopje at Honey Dew, Chivhu district, waiting for relatives, when two farm workers pointed out five or six silver-grey objects shaped like two saucers rim to rim. They hovered, seeming to spin, perhaps four kilometres off and about 300 feet up, each about the size of the base of Bulawayo's Centenary Fountain. Again and again they retreated towards the distant mountains at astonishing speed and came straight back to hover, never banking or turning, as if performing for the watchers, then sped off and vanished instantly. They emitted no glow. His father reported it to the Rhodesia Herald, which printed it. There was no large water nearby and no power lines. Flanagan died tragically after sending his report.

What Hind made of it

Hind holds the names of the nine other witnesses, suggests the Umnzati river he mentions may be the Inyatsitsi, asks readers for the size of the Centenary Fountain base, and records that Flanagan has since died tragically.

In their words

• It was almost as though they were putting on a show for us

• We all felt that it was nothing from this Earth, but that it was some sort of Intelligence.

• they hovered, but they did not turn as one would expect an aircraft to do.

Cross references

• Rhodesia Herald (1954 report)
• HELP! item (i), spread 13

Connected

• Letter from Mrs Flanagan: formation over Enkeldoorn, 1954Case fileNamed person

  One event, two family witnesses forty years apart in print and never linked by Hind: John Flanagan (aged six and a half) in No 5 and Mrs Flanagan (aged 86) in No 12 both describe the afternoon of 7 July 1954 at the family house on a kopje at Chivhu/Enkeldoorn, five or six silver objects repeatedly approaching and retreating without turning, farm workers pointing them out, and the Rhodesia Herald report of about 8 July 1954 arranged by the father, the Town Ranger. John counts nine other witnesses, his mother thirteen people.

• Shimmering greenish-blue sphere near ChivjuCase fileSame place

  Chivhu: the 1986 dawn bolide and the 1954 formation are 32 years apart and unrelated; both happen to sit within 2.5 km of the Chivhu airstrip, whose opening date is not established.

• Buckmasters Farm Case, May 1951Case fileSame window

  1951 and 1954 daylight silver saucers, both reported to the Rhodesia Herald at the time and both reaching Hind decades later as previously unreported cases; both had large groups of African farm workers among the witnesses.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 5 (January 1992), spread 9-10

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