Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 7, January 1993

Ray Burl: rustling object over house, Famona, Bulawayo

1958 · 5 Kirkaldy Road, Famona, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

What was reported

On the night of 18 May 1958 Ray Burl, a wartime SAAF pilot living at Kirkaldy Road, Famona, Bulawayo, was roused at 01:15 by three young women neighbours frightened by something hovering above his house; his wife had heard a rustling sound at 22:30. Outside they saw a roughly rectangular object about 1.5 by 1 metre moving swiftly up, down and sideways with a rustling and a high-pitched vibrating noise. It vanished while he fetched a torch, then returned in a spiral to hover 15 to 18 metres up. The torch showed a dull grey, faintly luminous belly; when the beam hit it, it shot off horizontally, climbed vertically and disappeared southward. Burl felt ice-cold, one girl was ill overnight, and baby daughter Gillian was later diagnosed with unexplained dehydration.

What Hind made of it

Hind reports it from her book as a local parallel to the Ontario creature case; the clear, moonless, windless night rules out a kite or balloon.

Explanation offered
Kite or balloon (excluded by lack of wind)

In their words

  • It hovered over the house and moved swiftly in both a horizontal and vertical plane

    Ray Burl, spread 15

  • It looked something like a book which has been opened in the middle

    Ray Burl, spread 15

Cross references

  • UFOs African Encounters pp 120-123
  • UFORIC Ontario case

Connected

  • Bulawayo: fat oval with a brilliant blue lightCase fileSame behaviour

    A low object over a suburban house at night or dusk, hovering, moving suddenly up, down or sideways, then leaving vertically at speed; 1958 and 1980; each had three or more adult witnesses. Both are among the four 'hard' sightings in the cluster.

  • Bulawayo reports gathered by Vivienne PascoeCase fileSame place

    Famona and Suburbs are adjacent southern suburbs of Bulawayo, 3.4 km apart on these coordinates; 36 years apart and nothing else links them. Listed only because it is the one same-place pair with real (not placeholder) addresses.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 7 (January 1993), spread 15

Nearby

Stories within 60 km