Lights in the Sky C: glass-like object over Bulawayo, 1977

What was reported

Sent in by N Middeldorf of Bulawayo. A beautician at the Haddon & Sly store recalled, with some lingering fear, walking with a friend one evening in 1977 sometime after 18:00 when they saw what they took for an aeroplane approaching. As it neared they realised it was too large and made no sound; it seemed to be made of glass and carried a glow. As they were about to retreat in fright the object turned to one side, showed a light that went on and off, perhaps pulsating, then shot off at high speed and vanished. Hind suggests an aircraft landing at Bulawayo Airport, noting engine noise trails an approaching plane and wing lights flash, but finds the glassy transparency the puzzling element and cites earlier issues for similar descriptions.

What Hind made of it

Possibly an aircraft on approach to Bulawayo Airport, but the made-of-glass appearance is puzzling and recurs in other reports.

Explanation offered
Aircraft coming in to land at Bulawayo Airport

In their words

• it was made of glass

• The puzzling factor in this report is the 'made of glass' appearance of the craft.

Cross references

• UFO AFRINEWS Nos 6 and 8 (transparency of craft)

Connected

• Bulawayo reports gathered by Vivienne PascoeCase fileSame behaviour

  In both, witnesses first took the object for an approaching aircraft (1977) or a plane on fire (Morgan and Tolley, 1994), then judged it too big, too low and silent. Hind proposed the Bulawayo Airport approach for 1977. The 1994 night is the Case 95 umbrella, consistent with the mid-September 1994 rocket-body re-entry seen across Zimbabwe (inferred from the cross-reference; this summary gives no date).

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 17 (February 1998 (cover); masthead printed as January 1998), spread 16

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• The Hawks over Bulawayo 1985 · 13 km