Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 47 · UFO Afrinews No 6, July 1992

'Rhoda': the flattened cotton-reel craft over a hill south of Johannesburg

1975 · top of a hill in the south of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

What was reported

Near Christmas 1975, between 7 and 8 p.m., Rhoda and an ex-RAF pilot friend parked on a hilltop south of Johannesburg to talk and noticed a very bright light hovering above them, too bright, high and close for a street light or a star, with what she thinks was a faint constant hum. When the light dimmed and receded, which felt eerie, an enormous dark-grey metallic craft appeared above them, shaped like a flattened cotton reel and slightly oval, with glowing red portholes and a thin yellowish-white ray of light at its rear. It moved off in a flat spiral, each loop wider as it gained speed, and they followed by road until it shot away at a 30 to 45 degree angle in a flash. She felt no fear, only intense mutual observation, drew it at her friend's urging and declined to go to the press.

What Hind made of it

Explanation offered
street light or bright star (considered and rejected by the witnesses)

In their words

  • It was only when this light dimmed that the object became visible.

    Rhoda, spread 16

  • I suppose we have been looking at a UFO

    Rhoda's ex-RAF pilot friend, spread 16

  • The movement of the craft was like a flat spiral

    Rhoda, spread 16

Cross references

  • Radio 702

Connected

  • Gamida (A Story of an Abduction)Case fileNamed person

    Both reached Hind through her Radio 702 Johannesburg appearances (Rhoda's 1975 memory; Gamida after hearing Hind discuss Secret Life). 08-05-1, 13-19-1 and 13-21-1 also cite 702.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 6 (July 1992), spread 16

Nearby

Stories within 60 km