East Africa, February 1951February 1951

On February 19, 1951, the crew and passengers of an East African Airways Lodestar spotted an unusual object over Mount Kilimanjaro while flying from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam. Around 7:20 a.m., the radio officer first spotted what looked like a bright white star hanging motionless roughly 10,000 feet above the mountain. The object appeared to be shaped like a bullet with a vertical fin at one end, and was a dull silver color marked by vertical dark bands along its body. Captain J. Bicknell, the pilot, estimated the thing was over 200 feet long.

For about 17 minutes, the object remained stationary. Passengers took turns viewing it through binoculars and attempting to photograph it. The crew even radioed nearby Eastleigh airfield to see if a French Constellation aircraft flying in the area could account for the sighting. Eastleigh reported the French plane was cruising at about 17,500 feet, so it seemed like a possible explanation, but the crew was skeptical. The more Bicknell examined the object, the less he believed it was a balloon, as Eastleigh had suggested.

Suddenly, the object began moving eastward and climbing rapidly. During three minutes of observed flight, the object appeared to cover roughly 60 miles, suggesting a speed around 1,000 miles per hour. It left no vapor trail and showed no visible means of propulsion. When it reached about 40,000 feet, the observers lost sight of it. Both Bicknell and the radio officer believed the object was some kind of flying machine. Someone aboard took photographs of the object, though those images would later be described as blurred or missing from the file. The local Nairobi Sunday Post noted the credibility of the witnesses, saying the sighting came from responsible airline officials and ordinary passengers rather than isolated individuals.

This case file consists of 9 pages held by the National Archives.