Southern Africa Unexplained

Case N° 150 · UFO Afrinews No 21, January 2000

Report from Mary (South Africa)

1998 · Johannesburg, South Africa

What was reported

On a cloudless October morning at 9:30 Mary, her son, daughter and the daughter's boyfriend watched a solid silver sphere high above their Johannesburg house. It travelled in a roughly straight line but zigzagged randomly, seeming to float, stop, then move on as if propelled. It looked small, though without clouds its size, distance and speed could not be judged; it shone like silver on the sunward side with a dark shadow opposite, so the light was reflected rather than internal. There was no sound, smell or vapour trail. A second, white object of similar size and shape appeared; both were visible for about ten minutes, at one point crossing paths in opposite directions. When the white one seemed to disappear Mary checked with binoculars. Having worked at a test range with its own weather station, she is sure they were not balloons.

What Hind made of it

Weather balloons seem ruled out because two objects aloft together moved in opposite directions under the same wind; the sudden vanishing in a clear sky is a mark of genuine reports. Mary is checking balloon release times for the next issue.

Explanation offered
Weather balloons from the armaments company's weather station

In their words

  • This sudden 'vanishing' seems only to occur with genuine UFO reports.

    Cynthia Hind, spread 12

Cross references

  • Issue 22 (follow-up promised)

Connected

  • Letter from 'Mary', Johannesburg: balloons ruled out, negatives in AustraliaCase fileSame witness

    Mary's October 1998 spheres and her letter: Met Office releases at 1 a.m. and 1 p.m. rule out weather balloons; negatives sent to Australia, report never printed.

  • Visited by Air Force OfficersCase fileSame behaviour

    Weather balloon offered and rejected by a witness claiming professional weather experience (Weather Bureau clerk 1957; test-range weather station 1998); Howell (06-06-1) and Viljoen's wind argument (18-15-1) make four balloon rejections.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 21 (January 2000), spread 12

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