Lights in the Sky D: fast flashing light, Glenara Avenue, Harare

What was reported

On 11 September 1997 Barry Smith, in Glenara Avenue, Harare, saw a flashing white light travelling very fast, which he put at around 4000 kph, heading in the direction of Harare Airport. Aircraft use that route regularly, but he felt this was moving far too quickly for one. He stopped his car and watched it head toward the Westgate shopping complex. Later he saw it again, this time flashing in doubles; the light was like a spotlight, very bright but not large. Hind's comment is that it may well have been one of the roughly 3000 known satellites, and that distance and speed are hard to judge at great height.

What Hind made of it

Probably a satellite; distances and speeds deceive at great height.

Explanation offered
Satellite

In their words

• It could have been a satellite.

Connected

• Report from Graham (Harare)Case fileSame place

  Both late 1997 in Harare on the airport's flight routes: Barry Smith's fast flashing light heading toward Harare Airport on 11 September (Hind: probably a satellite) and Graham's disc under the take-off path in mid-November (Hind: possibly a balloon). Two of the three most recent Harare sightings sit on the air route.

Source

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

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• The Ariel School encounter 1994 · 18 km
• The elliptical sausage over Lake McIlwaine 1954 · 33 km
• The tsotsis on Lilfordia Road 1996 · 33 km
• The circle of light on Mazowe Dam 1968 · 37 km