Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 42 · UFO Afrinews No 6, July 1992

Report from Audrey Howell of South Africa: rounded pyramid over Midrand

1991 · Glenferness, Midrand, Transvaal, Johannesburg, South Africa

What was reported

Over a weekend in late July or early August 1991, Audrey Howell and her husband noticed an object above their Glenferness property drifting roughly north to south, which they first took for a plastic bag or balloon. Through binoculars it had a regular shape that never changed yet seemed to rotate randomly: roughly a three-cornered pyramid with a fourth rounded corner on top, all corners well rounded, lying horizontally as it travelled. It took ten to twelve minutes to pass and showed no markings or lights, so they decided it was plastic, a balloon or a hoax, though it never flopped or altered shape as those would. Later, reading Timothy Good's UFO Report 1992 on triangular objects seen over England in mid-April 1991, she wondered about a connection and asked for an informed opinion.

What Hind made of it

Explanation offered
plastic bag, balloon or hoax (the witness's own suggestions, which she finds unsatisfying)

In their words

  • it looked like a nose cone of a space vehicle which was somewhat out of control.

    Audrey Howell, spread 06

  • a regular shape which didn't change at all, but that it seemed to be rotating randomly.

    Audrey Howell, spread 06

Cross references

  • The UFO Report 1992, edited by Timothy Good
  • triangular objects over England, mid-April 1991

Connected

  • The Booysens Triangle, 1986Case 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 6 (July 1992), spread 06

Nearby

Stories within 60 km