Mystery and subterfuge shroud 'The Kalahari UFO Crash'.
The incident has been reported in daily newspapers and UFO magazines alike. Some sources date the crash as 7th May 1989, others sources quote the same date for 1988. The UFO was allegedly shot down by a South African Air Force Mirage jet and crashed near the border between Botswana and South Africa.
Quest International, a well known UK magazine printed a Special Edition devoted to the subject in May/June 1993. According to their reporter a joint S.A.A.F.-U.S.A.F called OPERATION SILVER DIAMOND was mounted to recover the occupants and debris. A former Lieutenant-Colonel of the U.S.A.F. is quoted as saying..."My contacts in naval intelligence have informed me that we [The United States] have given the South Africans advanced technology in exchange for a U.F.O.".
Among the threads of evidence is a printed photocopy of a faxed response to a query from Wright-Patterson Airforce Base which refers to a satellite re-entry on 7 th May 1988 and a confirmation of a 'fireball or satellite re-entry' in the same area on 7th May 1988. A researcher at Quest claims to have phoned N.O.R.A.D. and asked the duty officer to provide any information relating to this date and location. The officer allegedly replied that 'an unknown object was tracked on entering the region'. The magazine goes on to state that..."two totally independent researchers made their way to South Africa to conduct their own enquiries into the case". Each reported that a crash landing of some kind "had "taken place in the Kalahari Desert. The one report was from Dr. J.J. Hurtak, an American ufologist and Professor of Science, the other was from J. Von Buttlara, a German researcher. Both were able to confirm Military sightings of an 'object' over South African airspace. There are also reports of a nameless researcher who travelled into the Kalahari region where he spoke at length with local tribesman who confirmed having seen strange aerial objects in the area.
A report during 1993 in 'The Argus', a Cape Town daily newspaper, told of claims of an international 'cover-up' and 'disinformation exercise' that is blocking attempts by researchers to uncover the 'truth'. It also named Botswana's Environment Minister, Dithoko Seiso, as confirming the incident.
Cynthia Hind of Zimbabwe, a world famous UFO researcher and author of a book on UFO's in Southern Africa subsequently wrote an article that was published in the 'UFO Times'. It was titled;
"Anatomy of a hoax. The UFO crash on the South African/Botswana border".
This article exposes one, James Van Greunen, as the originator of an extremely elaborate hoax. She points out inconsistencies and discrepancies in the alleged documents as proof. Amongst these are 14 spelling mistakes in what claimed to be an "official "document. When Van Greunen was confronted he admitted he had faked some details but still insisted it was a true story about a downed object on the border repeated to him in confidence by a friend of his, Hendrik Greef, a pilot in the S.A.A.F, who had overheard it at an officers mess.
From all this it is clear to see that case has been fraught with controversy and bizarre reports continue to add to the confusion. There have recently been claims that a French Intelligence officer was murdered whilst investigating the case.
Additionally, when the author attempted to track the sources of the above newspaper article he was told by the librarian at the Argus. "The file has been 'borrowed' and is now 'missing'"
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