Case No 112 · UFO Afrinews No 13, February 1996
Mystery Crash on the Cedarberg
1995 ยท farm Eikebos, Cedarberg Valley, Citrusdal, South Africa
What was reported
Pam Puxley visited citrus farmer Sukkie Smit on 16 June 1995. On 30 May 1995 at about 07:45 he was driving the valley road on his farm Eikebos in the Cedarberg when his worker pointed skyward: a bright yellow oval light was crossing the valley trailing smoke, followed closely by a second, almost perfectly round light, both silent. They passed over the beacon on the mountain and came down in an inaccessible valley beyond, sending up heavy smoke. Smit reported a possible aircraft crash to D F Malan Airport and the Citrusdal police; within an hour police and apparently military arrived, a police helicopter with paramedics reached the site, and the search was dropped after an hour. Police used his house as a stakeout and told him not to talk when SABC's Charl Pouw called. He was told it was a meteorite, yet Sutherland observatory knew of only three, all into the sea, and no radar trace.
What Hind made of it
Puxley's report treats the official secrecy and the absence of debris as suspicious; Smit reasons that a meteorite reaching the ground is no bigger than an old one-Rand coin whereas what he saw left smoke and evidence a thousand times larger, so it was possibly a UAP.
Explanation offered
Meteorite (told to the farmer by officials); aeroplane; Sterrewag at Sutherland recorded only three meteorites, all into the sea, with no radar activity in the area.
In their words
-
I believe we are not the only life in this vastness of the Universe...
-
was very secretive, short and formal... indeed very suspicious
Cross references
- sightings at Springbok 15 minutes earlier
- sightings at Piketberg
- Sterrewag, Sutherland
- D F Malan Airport
- Ysterplaat
- drawing of the two objects over the beacon, spread 17
Source
Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 13 (February 1996), spread 16-17
In the archive
This case became a story on this site.
