Letter from Mrs Flanagan: formation over Enkeldoorn, 1954

What was reported

Mrs Flanagan of Bulawayo, aged 86, recalls 1954 at Enkeldoorn, now Chivhu, where the family house stood high on a kopje looking toward the Manusi Mountains and along the Harare road. Thirteen people, including two Malawian domestic workers, were waiting for a neighbour when one of them, Edison, shouted that a lot of aeroplanes were coming. The objects came straight toward them from the mountains, then about half-way reversed backward without turning, like a car reversing, and in complete silence. They approached a second time, nearer, and reversed again; on the third pass, nearer still, the watchers were terribly excited, but the objects went back and did not return. Her late husband, Town Ranger of Chivhu, got the story onto the front page of the Rhodesia Herald around 8 July 1954.

What Hind made of it

Printed as a letter without comment; archive reference given

In their words

• But about half-way, they reversed back, not turning, but just like a car would reverse.

Cross references

• Rhodesia Herald, about 8 July 1954
• TV programme 'You and Your Stars'

Connected

• Cases Not Previously Reported: Report from John Flanagan of Bulawayo (Honey Dew farm, Chivhu, 1954)Case fileNamed person

  One event, two family witnesses forty years apart in print and never linked by Hind: John Flanagan (aged six and a half) in No 5 and Mrs Flanagan (aged 86) in No 12 both describe the afternoon of 7 July 1954 at the family house on a kopje at Chivhu/Enkeldoorn, five or six silver objects repeatedly approaching and retreating without turning, farm workers pointing them out, and the Rhodesia Herald report of about 8 July 1954 arranged by the father, the Town Ranger. John counts nine other witnesses, his mother thirteen people.

• Featherstone farm gate: heated ground and sheep that would not crossCase fileSame behaviour

  Approach, then reverse away without turning: the 1954 Enkeldoorn formation 'like a car reversing' (three times) and the 1996 Featherstone 'car' that drove up to the gate, halted and backed away. Forty-two years and 40 km apart; a behavioural echo, no more.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 12 (July 1995), spread 21

Nearby

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