South African constables observe disc-shaped object resting on highway

During an extensive wave of sightings in 1965, police officers in Exeter, N.H. and Damon, Texas both had close-range encounters with UFOs – structured objects with body lights – on September 3. (See separate report on Texas encounter). On the night of September 16 two Pretoria, S. Africa, constables came upon a disc-shaped object resting on the Pretoria-Bronkhorstspruit highway. The headlights of their police van illuminated the copper-colored object which appeared to be about 30 feet in diameter. On top of the UFO was a small dome.

Constables John Lockem and Koos de Klerk had been patrolling the highway just after midnight when they suddenly drove up on the object. In seconds the UFO suddenly lifted off the road, emitting tongues of flame from two tubes or channels on the underside. “Its lift-off was quicker than anything I have ever seen,” Constable Lockem reported later. Flames from the macadam (tar and gravel) road surface shot up  three feet in the air as the UFO departed, blazing long after it was out of sight. Later investigation showed that part of the road was caved in, evidently from a heavy weight, and gravel had been separated from the tar in a severely burned area about six feet in diameter.

Constable Lockem drew a sketch of the UFO with the aid of a staff artist of the newspaper Die Vaterland. The District Commandant of Pretoria North, Lt. Col. J.B. Brits, told the newspaper that the event was considered “as being of a highly secret nature and an inquiry is being conducted in top circles.”

Samples of the damaged road surface were analyzed by a leading scientific agency in South Africa. NICAP has been unable to obtain copies of the analysis reports.