February 19, 1951 — Nr. Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
7:20 a.m. Capt. Jack Bicknell and Radio Officer D. W. Merrifield are flying a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar aircraft out of Nairobi, Kenya, when they see a bright object hanging motionless about 10,000 above Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanganyika [now Tanzania]. They watch it for 3 minutes, then tell the passengers about it. Bicknell observes it through binoculars and sees a “metallic, bullet-shaped object which must have been over 200 feet long.” It has a vertical fin at one end, and at regular intervals along the fuselage are vertical dark bands. It remains completely stationary for 17 minutes. Two passengers take photos of it. Radio Officer Roy Overstreet, a passenger, shoots 30 feet of color film with a telescopic lens on his cine camera. Then it begins rising and moving eastward, disappearing at 40,000 feet. It leaves no vapor trail. A still from Overstreet’s film, showing only a tiny dot of light, is published in the Natal Mercury on March 14, but the film is now lost and the other photos have never surfaced. [Eberhart]
Sketches:
High Contrast Photo Enlargement:
BB Record Card:
State Department Letter:
Unknown Newsclips:
Sources:
“The Flying Saucer: Captain Bicknell’s Own Story,” Nairobi (Kenya) Sunday Post, February 25, 1951, p. 15;
“The Most Authentic Flying Saucer Story of Them All,” London Sunday Dispatch, February 25, 1951, p. 1;
“Pilot Made Sketch of ‘Flying Saucer,’” London Sunday Dispatch, March 4, 1951, p. 1;
“‘Saucer’ Flies on Ciné Film: Or Does It?” Natal Mercury (Durban, South Africa), March 14, 1951;
“Two Classic Sightings,” Flying Saucer Review 9, no. 3 (May-June 1963): 11-12; [Reprinted from Australian Flying Saucer Magazine, May 1953, pp. 4-5]
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, p. 124;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 442, p. 105;
Barry Greenwood, “Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanganyika, February 19, 1951: Photo Located,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 16 (July 2015): 1–4;
NICAP, “Lodestar Crew Sees Stationary Silver Elongated Object”;
Center for UFO Studies, [case documents];
Patrick Gross, “February 19, 1951, Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa”;