The 16th September 1994 started out very as any other day at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. It was a private, fee-paying school and as a result most of the pupils were from well-off families.

The first lesson of the day had been completed and the children had been allowed to go outside on their morning break at around 10am, whilst the teachers remained inside in a meeting.

It was during the morning break that sixty two of the pupils at the school saw a UFO, a UFO that was very close to the ground. Some ran towards it to get a better view. Some were rooted to the spot in fear, whilst others retreated away from the scene. A number of the pupils later told their memories of that day and said they had been given environmental messages to look after the planet.

The incident sparked interest from the media and the following day the school was visited by a correspondent from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Cynthia Hind. She talked with the pupils who had witnessed the ‘craft’ and got them all to draw pictures of what they had seen. The pictures turned out to be remarkably similar to eachother.

The first foreign media interest came from Tim Leach from the British Broadcasting Corporation. He was a seasoned war correspondent but described himself as not being able “to handle this”.

The Ariel School Incident of 1994 undoubtedly stands out as the most famous UFO encounter in all of Africa. Sixty two children’s lives were changed forever that day by an event they will never forget.