A Peculiar Cloud-Like Object

What was reported

Marie van Staden followed up a report in the Afrikaans magazine Keur of July 1995. On Monday 10 April 1995 at 7:30 am eleven-year-old Braam M., his mother and two younger sisters were driving to school from the family sheep farm Doornplaats near Merweville when Mrs M. pointed out a very low, oddly shaped, dark blue or near-black 'cloud' straight ahead. At the T-junction they realised it was nothing of the kind: smooth, about the size of a large truck, some 80 to 100 metres off and just above rugby-crossbar height, with something on top that seemed to turn. It moved north while the wind blew west. Mrs M. turned left to follow it; it gathered speed, moved away, rose straight up and vanished behind a small cloud. No lights or markings. Braam's drawing shows a domed, ringed disc tapering to a point; a sketch map marks the spot.

What Hind made of it

Investigator finds Mrs M. very sincere and a farmer of standing in a small community who would not invite ridicule; weather balloons, cloud and hot-air balloons are examined and found unlikely because the object moved independently of the wind and had no basket or bulges; a weather report and hot-air balloon check are awaited for a future issue.

Explanation offered
Aeroplane or hot-air balloon (townspeople); weather balloon and cloud considered by the investigator and discounted.

In their words

• It was the strangest thing I have ever seen in my life.

• It was difficult to describe, but it looked like it was dark blue or almost black.

• I can swear it's turning.

Cross references

• KEUR magazine, July 1995
• a UAP sighting in Johannesburg that Braam heard of
• Figure 1 drawing and Figure 2 map, spread 9

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 13 (February 1996), spread 8-9