Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 99 (a) · UFO Afrinews No 12, July 1995

Visited by Air Force Officers

1957 · Hellenic Hotel, Pretoria, South Africa

What was reported

Julie R. was standing on the balcony of the Hellenic Hotel in Pretoria in 1957 when something flashed across the sky at very high speed from south to north and vanished into a cloud bank. She phoned the newspaper next day and was then visited by two Air Force officers, who questioned her and told her she had seen a weather balloon. She answered that she had worked for the Weather Bureau after leaving school and knew all about balloons. Realising she was no fool, they warned her not to talk about such things; she replied that no law could stop her. The following day the Pretoria News carried an item on a similar object seen over Toulouse and Germany.

What Hind made of it

Unverified; printed for the record

Explanation offered
Weather balloon, according to two Air Force officers; rejected by the witness

In their words

  • They then realized I was not the fool they took me for, but warned me not to talk about these things.

    Julie R., spread 12

Cross references

  • Pretoria News
  • Similar object over Toulouse, France, and Germany
  • Case No 99 (b)

Connected

  • Whose Face Wore the Smile?Case fileNamed person

    Marie van Staden forwarded both Julie R. (Hellenic Hotel, Pretoria, 1957) and Dave H. (Joubert Park hotel); printed together in No 12 as 'unverified, for the record'.

  • Pulsating Disc: Superintendent Viljoen's helicopter chase over GautengCase fileSame behaviour

    Air Force involvement claimed by the witness: two SAAF officers visit Julie R. in 1957 and warn her to keep quiet; in 1996 Col Dreyer says Jan Smuts had a radar return then denies it. The 1989 van Greunen hoax (04-15-1) also trades on a SAAF Intelligence signature.

  • Report from Mary (South Africa)Case fileSame behaviour

    Weather balloon offered and rejected by a witness claiming professional weather experience (Weather Bureau clerk 1957; test-range weather station 1998); Howell (06-06-1) and Viljoen's wind argument (18-15-1) make four balloon rejections.

  • Pulsating Blue LightsCase fileSame witness

    12-12-1 is outside this cluster (Hellenic Hotel, Pretoria, 1957). Same Julie R., both relayed by Marie van Staden as Hind's Case No 99 (a) and (b). Note also that 12-12-2 is mis-geocoded: the text says Margate, about 120 km south-west of Durban, but its coordinates (-29.90, 30.98) sit on the Durban Bluff. It should not be in this cluster at all.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 12 (July 1995), spread 12

Nearby

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