UAP Flap in Zimbabwe

What was reported

Between 20:50 and 21:05 on 14 September 1994 a fiery object with a long sparking tail and a trailing cluster of smaller lights crossed southern Africa from north to south, reported from Kempton Park near Johannesburg, Botswana, Zambia and all over Zimbabwe. Hind heard a sonic boom in Harare at 21:04; dogs stayed quiet. Newspapers and a Harare amateur astronomer called it a spectacular meteorite shower and Hind accepted this at first, then reconsidered as dozens of callers described slow, low, silent, level flight at tree-top height, Zeppelin or cone shapes with rows of window-like green lights, and durations up to five minutes. She records the more graphic accounts from Kariba, Hwange, Bulawayo, the Midlands, Harare and Mutare, suspects two or three different objects, and offers three conjectures: meteors, a jettisoned Russian satellite nose cone, or an unknown craft.

What Hind made of it

Hind first accepted the meteor identification but the volume of low, slow, silent, level-flight reports made her doubt it; she suspects two or three objects were seen and offers, expecting ridicule, an unknown craft not of this Earth as her third conjecture.

Explanation offered
Meteorite shower (Harare amateur astronomer, newspapers, Nisbet at first); Russian satellite nose cone jettisoned 14 September after a 26/27 August launch, pieces reportedly down near Karoi and in a river at Chokwe, Mozambique; aircraft on fire; a late Air Zimbabwe flight; fireworks from the Ghanaian president's aircraft; planetary-collision rubble

In their words

• It was the most spectacular shower of several I have seen.

• And if meteorites they were, what strange and unconventional behaviour!

• it was an unknown craft and not of our Earth

Cross references

• Case No 96 Ariel School, two days later
• UFO Afrinews No 12 forthcoming
• MUFON Journal, The Night Sky column by Walter Webb
• The Herald, Harare, 17 September 1994
• MUFON Journal January 1989 (Bob Jacobs, Big Sur 1964)
• SATV AGENDA 22 November 1994
• Radio 702 Johannesburg
• Sub-entries 11-06-1 to 11-11-1

Connected

• The Children of Ariel SchoolCase fileSame window

  Hind's own cross-reference: 'Case No 96 Ariel School, two days later'. The spectacular 14 September 1994 event and its press coverage (The Herald, 17 September) filled the days immediately before the Friday break-time sighting.

• Mrs Laing's workers at BeatriceCase fileNamed person

  Sub-entry of Case No 95: C. Laing of Beatrice and her workers Plugie and Robert are listed in the umbrella entry's named people; same night, 14 September 1994, no description of shape.

• C.H. Alexander of Civil Aviation, HarareCase fileSame window

  Sub-entry of Case No 95: C.H. Alexander of Civil Aviation watched the object cross the Runway 06 approach at Harare Airport, north to south, about 20 m above the trees, sparking for five minutes. The only report in the cluster genuinely located at the airport (1.1 km from Manyame, 1.7 km from the runway).

• Other Harare reports: Auchterlonie in Newlands and Jonasi in DzivaresekwaCase fileSame window

  Sub-entry of Case No 95: Auchterlonie in Newlands (overhead pass, red and white streaks, flat grey base) and Jonasi in Dzivaresekwa (different tracks from different suburbs, his 'Big Stone' sketch).

• The orange light over the Lomagundi Road (Hind's own 1975 sighting)Case fileSame witness

  Hind herself and Maria Sullivan are observers in both: the 1975 Lomagundi Road orange light they followed by car, and the sonic boom Hind heard in Harare at 21:04 on 14 September 1994. Both are the investigator's own household.

• Unexplained Balls of Light: Thursday 14th February 1991, Harare (Mrs D.G.)Case fileSame behaviour

  Fireball with sparks or fragments falling away: Mrs D.G.'s 1991 orange ball and the 14 September 1994 object with its long sparking tail and trailing cluster of lights. The 1994 event's slow, level, five-minute passage across southern Africa after a 26/27 August launch is the profile of a rocket-stage re-entry, not a meteor.

• Unexplained Balls of Light: Friday 14th June 1991, Harare blue light (Margaret Barnes and Richard Lockie)Case fileSame behaviour

  Ground and surroundings lit up by a passing coloured fireball with fire behind it, silent, fast, disappearing behind trees (1991); the 1994 object also trailed fire and was seen across Harare. Hind appealed for witnesses for the 1991 event and cross-referenced a Mazvikadei Dam report the same weekend.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 11 (Feb. 1995), spread 05-11

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• The Ariel School encounter 1994 · 20 km
• The elliptical sausage over Lake McIlwaine 1954 · 30 km
• The tsotsis on Lilfordia Road 1996 · 31 km
• The circle of light on Mazowe Dam 1968 · 38 km