(meteorobs) Possible meteor event over South Africa

[Richard Wade]

Anyone got any ideas on what this could have been? Space debris or meteor?

Richard Wade



Pretoria South Africa







UFO crashes in South Africa
02/01/2007 23:13  - (SA)



Pretoria - A UFO was sighted at Lephalale, where it was described as a
strange object "on an orange cloud, singing like a million turbines" -
hitting the earth with a bang at 04:33 on Saturday.



That's according to Leonie Ras, the administrative manager of Lephalale
(Ellisras) who witnessed the spectacle at her daughter's farm just east of
the town on Saturday morning.



"I was lying on my bed reading SMS-messages when I heard a noise like an
Airbus aircraft firing up its motors."

"It was raining but there was no thunder or lightning. The noise grew louder
and eventually it sounded like a million turbines screaming in unison," Ras
said.

She walked to the bedroom window and saw the clouds taking on a bright
orange-red colour.

"Suddenly, a bright object plunged from the clouds to the earth, at a
terrible speed, and hit the ground with an almighty bang."

"It looked like Haley's comet, round in the front and with an orange-red
tail following behind."



When the UFO hit the ground the low-lying clouds went orange.

"It was so exceptional that I started crying. I wished my children and
grandchildren could have seen it. I had not been drinking and I was in full
control of my faculties," she said.



She calculated that the object must have hit the ground near Beauty, between
the Tambotie and Palele rivers.



Cobus Nel, her son-in-law, who was also in the house, woke up from the
commotion.



"I woke up to a terrible rumbling, followed by a sound like an explosion. I
woke my wife up, so that she could also listen, because the rumbling lasted
more than a minute, becoming louder, then we heard the bang," Nel said.

Lephlale's fire service, police and disaster control centres seemed to have
slept through the commotion.



"I want someone to go and have a look. The farms here are big, and it could
have fallen somewhere, where the farmer doesn't even know about it," Ras
said.



http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2050666,00.html