Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 78 · UFO Afrinews No 9, February 1994

'Bus' in the Sky

1993 · Cape Town, over the mountains toward Cape Point, South Africa

What was reported

On Sunday 20 June 1993 at about three in the afternoon Avril and three friends were having a drink in her Cape Town lounge when she looked across to the mountains and saw what looked like an omnibus, white with black windows but without a front 'nose', moving straight across the mountain top and out of proportion to it. Her friends stood, looked and saw the same thing. It moved quite fast, passed behind trees, and reappeared over another part of the mountain now black with white windows, then disappeared. It travelled from the direction of Cape Town toward Cape Point in fine weather. Pam Puxley interviewed her on 10 July 1993. Hind comments that assessing shape is hard when witnesses liken objects to familiar things, and that a 'bus' is a most uncommon description.

What Hind made of it

Hind finds shape hard to assess from untrained witnesses but notes the bus description is almost unique, matching only the 1975 Authers/Sealy case.

In their words

  • You'll all think I'm nuts, but there's a bus above the mountain and it's going straight across.

    Avril, spread 14

  • It was bigger than a bus but like I said, it didn't have a 'nose': it was just the shape of a rectangle.

    Avril, spread 14

  • But a 'bus' is certainly most uncommon, and what is the witnesses' perception of a bus?

    Cynthia Hind, spread 14

Cross references

  • Authers/Sealy bus near Shabani, 17 August 1975 (UFOS-AFRICAN ENCOUNTERS, 09-14-3)
  • Avril's earlier ball-of-flame sighting (09-14-2)

Connected

  • Avril's stationary ball of flameCase fileSame witness

    Avril: the 20 June 1993 'bus' and a c.1984 stationary ball of flame; the earlier one claims next-day press corroboration that is not traced.

  • Sea LightCase fileSame window

    April and 20 June 1993, both on the False Bay side looking toward the mountains/Cape Point; both Puxley interviews for Afrinews 9 (Avril interviewed 10 July 1993).

  • The Vanishing Cylinder at HangklipCase fileSame behaviour

    Daylight structured object on or over a mountain skyline that lightened or reversed colour as it moved, seen by three or four people: Gaussen 1990, Avril 1993. Both are compatible with an aircraft or plume changing aspect against the light.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 9 (February 1994), spread 14

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