Southern Africa Unexplained

Case · UFO Afrinews No 8, Sept. 1993

Blue light with flaming tail over Old Mutare (Maria Sullivan)

1993 · Old Mutare, Mutare and the Nyanga Mountains, Zimbabwe

What was reported

Maria Sullivan, the newsletter's assistant editor, was visiting her daughter in the Old Mutare area between Mutare and the Nyanga Mountains over Easter 1993. On Sunday 11 April, shortly after sunset in perfect weather, she saw a long blue light with a flaming tail streak rapidly across the sky from south-east to north-west. It seemed to lengthen and brighten as it approached and then shorten and dim as it receded, taking only two or three seconds before appearing to vanish into thin air. There was no sound or smell and it reminded her of a small comet, and of the blue flaming-tailed light reported near Harare and Mazvikadei Dam on 14 June 1991 in issue 5. Hind suggests an auroral meteor while noting the reported colours do not fit well.

What Hind made of it

Hind finds it hard to comment on passing lights and proposes an auroral meteor, which has a brief life or drifts slowly, but notes such meteors are usually greenish-white rather than the colours reported.

Explanation offered
Auroral meteor

In their words

  • The incident took only 2-3 seconds; the light diminished so fast, it seemed to vanish into thin air.

    Maria Sullivan, spread 18

  • An Auroral meteor, which it could well have been, generally has a brief life in the sky

    Cynthia Hind, spread 18

Cross references

  • UFO Afrinews No 5, Mazvikadei Dam light of 14 June 1991
  • printed under Case No 75 More Lights in the Sky

Connected

  • Unexplained Light Visible in the VumbaCase fileSame behaviour

    Both describe a flame or flaming tail at the rear, silence and 'no smell'. The 'no smell' item in both is Hind's standard question rather than a shared feature. Duration separates them: Sullivan's 2-3 seconds is a meteor; Philip's five minutes is not.

  • Follow up: Stuart of MutareCase fileNamed person

    Maria Sullivan is the witness in 08-18-1 (visiting her daughter at Old Mutare, Easter 1993) and Hind's companion on the 1998 Mutare field trip in 19-11-1. Shows that Hind's Harare circle had a family foothold in the Mutare area, a reporting channel rather than a phenomenon link.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 8 (Sept. 1993), spread 18

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