Sighting in Bulawayo

On the 18th of may 1958, at 5, Kirkaldy Road, Famona in Bulawayo Ray Burl's wife, heard a rustling noise at about 10:30 pm. It sounded like paper being swished about. Ray turned over in bed and dismissed the noise.

At 1:15 am they were awoken by their neighbours knocking on the window. The neighbours had been entertaining and when they went outside to see one of their guests off they had seen a 'peculiar object' in the sky. It was low over the Burl's house. The Burl's looked out of their window and were able to see the object. They ran outside for a better look. What they saw was roughly a rectangular object about 1.5 meters by 91 cms in dimension. It hovered over the house and moved swiftly in both a horizontal and vertical plane and all the time was making the strange rustling noise that had been heard earlier. The object disappeared and then reappeared again emanating the 'swish - swish' noise. the thing came down in a spiral movement and hovered over the house not more than 15 to 18 meters up.

Ray put the beam of his torch onto the object and lit it up slightly. The belly was a dull metallic grey and faintly luminous. as soon as the torch light struck it the object shot off on a horizontal direction. It then rose vertically and finally disappeared in a southerly direction.

One lady was ill and spent the rest of the night being sick - probably nerves.

The Burl's baby daughter became ill. the family doctor found that she was thoroughly dehydrated and there seemed no logical explanation. The burls reluctantly told the doctor of the experience of the night before. the doctor became alarmed as he thought the symptoms could have arisen from radiation from the mysterious object. the reason for the illness was never pinpointed and the child recovered. i do not know if Gillian ever experienced any after effects from this illness and would be interested to hear from anyone who knows anything further.