In a different part of the city, another witness was interviewed. He said that the object travelled silently and in a undulating fashion. When asked by the reporter whether he thought that it might be a hoax, this witness, Mr. Johan Becker, said that he couldn't conceive of someone spending the huge amount of money it would take to construct a craft like that, just to perpetrate a hoax.
An interview with a Police helicopter pilot, Superintendant Fred Viljoen, was also shown. He had four passengers in a police helicopter and chased after the object. This man looked as if he had seen a ghost. He said that the craft outran him with ease. And what was very unusual to him was the undulating movements of the craft.
Newspapers picked up the story the next day and treated it seriously, although Marius Lubbe tells ISCNI*Flash that many South Africans seem convinced the incident was an elaborate joke. However, that is NOT the opinion of most of the witnesses, including numerous police. The full text of a story in "Rapport," a major Afrikaans-language newspaper, follows.
WAS IT A HOAX OR WAS IT LITTLE GREEN MEN?
[Translated by Marius Lubbe]
Was it a marketing ploy for a movie or the return of ET?
Nobody has up to now come forward to claim responsibility for the bright light seen in a burst of colors in the airspace over Pretoria this week.
The object drifted along in the early morning over the Erasmuskloof suburb until police appeared on the scene. It then shot off at an "unearthly" speed over Pretoria until it disappeared over the horizon at Cullinan.
This is what witnesses say, and also what can be seen on the video shot of the object that morning.
In the meantime, earthlings in South Africa are looking for an explanation in movie theaters where Independence Day started showing on Friday. Vonda Morgenrood, PRO for Sterland movie distributors, says that they had nothing to do with it; and one can hear that she is becoming agitated by this rumour.
[Police] Superintendent (Colonel) Fred Viljoen is also not too happy to have to tell his story once again. He is a veteran of many dangerous chases involving dangerous criminals and was one of the pilots involved in the heroic rescue of people from the roof of a burning office building, the SALU building, last year -- a serious man who studies historical Boer war campaigns as a hobby.
He stands by his statement of what he saw after his helicopter was scrambled at 5:25 am with four passengers on board.
"A bright light was above Mamelodi, a township near Pretoria, at 70 degrees above the horizon. I followed the white disk, with the unusual flight pattern, in the direction of Cullinan. It moved at a high speed. We could not keep up with it and eventually had to give up when lack of fuel became a problem."
He stands by his statement that the disk was easily observable even in broad daylight.
Supt. Viljoen says that he did not ask the Air Force to scramble a Mirage fighter, but had contact with the control tower at Waterkloof Air Force Base. They told him that their radar showed "clutter" in the area in which the disk was flying.
Supt. Viljoen says that it is the first time in his life that he has seen something like this and also says that he has always been skeptical about UFOs and visitors from other planets.
Sgt. Nico Stander, one of the policemen who was on patrol when the object appeared, showed us the video he took of the events.
One can see the steering wheel of the police car. Then you see the bouncing ball of light through the front windscreen while hearing the police radio chirping in the background. "It's pulsating like a little hart," [sic] says one of the voices. The Sergeant's voice says, "It could be a balloon, the morning star or an eclipse of the sun and moon."
Whatever it was, the Sergeant says, it was the highlight of a boring night patrol. On Tuesday nights, very little goes on in the streets of Pretoria.
"It was a full moon night with a slight breeze blowing. The conditions were very clear that morning. We were in the right place at the right time and just got lucky, I suppose."
Sgt. Stander has an interest in the unusual, and showed us a stack of the American magazine "Encounters." UFOs is an interest of his and he says that he believes in this sort of thing.
"When I saw this object, I just knew I had to get it on video. I went to my dad and borrowed his camera."
When asked what he would have done if the disk landed and little green men appeared, he said that he would have tried to communicate with them and be friendly towards them.
Original file name: .CNI - S.Afr.Police Video UFO??
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