Hundreds report object hovering over Table Mountain (Weekend Argus)

What was reported

A short Weekend Argus item of 14 March 1992, reprinted by Hind, reported that hundreds of people had seen an unidentified object hovering above Table Mountain on the night of 13 March. Callers described a huge white light with smaller green lights that hung motionless for hours; Cliff Johnson of Pinelands insisted it was not a helicopter, while an Oranjezicht caller likened it to a very high bright streak, like light reflected off a wire. Radio Good Hope broadcast the sighting after its studio was swamped with calls. Hind places it beside the Clifton sighting of a week earlier and then cautions that bright planets and autokinesis were at work that month.

What Hind made of it

Hind offers no identification but her following comments on stars, planets and autokinesis apply to this wave.

Explanation offered
Not a helicopter per witness; Hind suggests bright planets and autokinesis generally

In their words

• It's definitely not a helicopter. It's been hanging there without moving for hours

Cross references

• Weekend Argus 14/3/92
• Radio Good Hope
• Case No 66

Connected

• Grant and Alzanne at Clifton, CapeCase fileSame window

  Clifton 7 March, Table Mountain 13 March 1992. Cape Times front page 7 March, Radio Good Hope swamped 13 March, Weekend Argus 14 March: a press-amplified wave. Hind groups them and blames planets and autokinesis.

• LITS over Cape Town: Interview with Arlene of ScarboroughCase fileSame window

  Bookends of the March 1992 LITS wave, the only true wave in the cluster.

• Jack van der Merwe: orange glowing object on Table MountainCase fileSame place

  Table Mountain: the 1992 crowd vs Jack van der Merwe's undated lone night lost on the mountain.

• Transformer in the SkyCase fileSame place

  Table Mountain massif; a 1969 close encounter in Newlands Ravine vs 1992 lights above the mountain. Nothing else in common.

• The lights above Table MountainStorySame place

  Lights over Table Mountain 1992 and 2015, both press-driven mass reports; in 2015 the Observatory offered a stadium-light explanation the stadium denied.

• Avril's stationary ball of flameCase fileSame behaviour

  Huge stationary light, many witnesses, newspaper report next day: Avril c.1984 (in the east at 2-3 am, 'ten times the sun'), the 1992 crowd.

• The monoplane that flew all over the UnionStorySame behaviour

  Mass reporting of lights over Cape Town amplified by newspapers: the 1914 war-scare aeroplane and the 1992 Cape Times/Radio Good Hope week.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 7 (January 1993), spread 07

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• Van Hunks and the Devil 1909 · 3 km
• The transformer on Newlands Ravine 1969 · 3 km
• The lights above Table Mountain 2015 · 4 km
• The Castle's regulars 1729 · 4 km
• The monoplane that flew all over the Union 1914 · 6 km