More Strange Lights in the Sky: a) Cape Town

What was reported

A rare first-hand report from one of the newsletter's own investigators. Late one 1996 evening Wintle became aware of a continuous roaring above his Mowbray house and went into the yard to find the cause. He saw an extremely bright light with a searchlight beam shining down from it. Fifty to a hundred feet below the white light hung a green and a red light, and scintillating flashes of what looked like red fire flickered between them. He still thought it might be a helicopter. The object stayed almost directly overhead and completely stationary for about ten minutes, then drifted very slowly northwards and gradually vanished behind rooftops. He had never seen anything like it.

What Hind made of it

Hind says the editors have no logical explanation.

Explanation offered
Witness wondered if it was a helicopter

In their words

• was an extremely bright light with a searchlight shining down from it

• The object, whatever it was, seemed to be completely stationary, almost directly overhead.

• unfortunately, we have no logical explanation for his experience

Connected

• CE III in the Drakenstein Mountains above PaarlCase fileNamed person

  Prier Wintle: on Hind's Feb 1989 Du Toit's Kloof verification team, then himself the Mowbray 1996 witness. Investigator turned witness.

• Blue-green oval over Du Toit's KloofCase fileNamed person

  Prier Wintle of Cape Town reported Mrs T's 1981 Du Toit's Kloof oval for the 'Older Cases Reviewed' feature and was the 1996 Mowbray witness.

• Trudie's Story: children's nose-bleeds without blood on the linen, a tube-like mark and alternating soresCase fileSame window

  Late 1996 in Cape Town; unrelated content (hovering roaring light vs children's nosebleeds). Weak.

• Grant and Alzanne at Clifton, CapeCase fileSame behaviour

  White light with red and green lights and a downward beam, i.e. aircraft navigation colours: Grant 1992 (silent, static over 30 min), Wintle 1996 (continuous roar, 10 min overhead, then slow drift north; AFB Ysterplaat and its helicopter squadron lie 5 km north).

• Sea LightCase fileSame behaviour

  Beam of light directed down onto water or ground: Sandra 1993, Wintle 1996. Both witnesses first considered a helicopter.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 16 (July 1997), spread 11

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• The transformer on Newlands Ravine 1969 · 3 km
• Van Hunks and the Devil 1909 · 3 km
• The Castle's regulars 1729 · 5 km
• The lights above Table Mountain 2015 · 6 km
• The monoplane that flew all over the Union 1914 · 9 km