Friday 20 May 2022 07:01 PM New photos show imprints left behind by UFO spotted in Zimbabwe in 1994 trends now
New photos show imprints in a field left by an alleged UFO that was seen by over 60 witnesses in a famous 1994 sighting in Zimbabwe.
A whole class of children at the Ariel School in Ruwa drew media attention nearly 30 years ago after they said they had seen a disc-shaped craft land in a field behind their playground one Friday morning in September 1994 – and some even said they saw humanoid beings come out from the craft and communicate with them.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning head of psychiatry at Harvard interviewed many of the 62 children at length shortly after, and concluded they were telling the truth. Now adults, they have all stuck to their stories for decades.
Previously unseen photo evidence has been shared with DailyMail.com ahead of the release of a new documentary, Ariel Phenomenon, about the astonishing incident.
The stunning revelation also comes as interest in UFOs is growing in the United States.
Over five dozen school children at the Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe claimed to have witnessed a unidentified flying craft land in a field behind their playground in September 1994
Researchers traveled to the school where they asked the kids to draw what they'd seen 'while it was fresh in their minds'
Photographer Gunter Hofer, who was one of the first on the scene documenting the incident, shared his photos which show wedge-shaped impressions allegedly left by the UFO in the grass field. He is seen posing near the 'flattened' grass
Hofer would later realize that some of the children had seen UFOs on two different days, Thursday September 15, 1994 and Friday, September 16
The kids claimed the first alleged landing took place on the other end of the campus, which led Hofer to discover the physical evidence
A marked photo illustrates the wedge-shaped impressions found in the dry soil within the grass after the alleged UFO sighting
On Tuesday a congressional sub committee held the first public hearings into 'unidentified aerial phenomena' (UAP) for over 50 years, prompted by continued reports of incursions by strange and highly sophisticated craft in US airspace, including near aircraft carriers and nuclear weapon silos.
In December, Congress passed a new law mandating a government UFO office to investigate such incidents.
The Ariel incident is one of the most prized UFO cases among researchers, who say that the scores of witnesses, their contemporaneous accounts and even striking drawings of the alleged craft and beings drawn the same day make for a very compelling – if unsettling– story.
The one element that had been lacking in the extraordinary case was physical evidence that something had landed in the schoolyard that morning.
But now DailyMail.com can reveal photographs of wedge-shaped impressions in the 'rock-hard' soil and an oval indentation in the long grass allegedly left by the craft.
Photographer Gunter Hofer was one of the first on the scene to document what happened, and shared his photos with DailyMail.com.
A map of Ariel School illustrates the two landing sites where the UFOs are said to have touched down on two consecutive days in September 1994
The site of the alleged second landing on Friday, September 16. Hofer explained he didn't find any evidence of a landing in this area where the ground was 'already flat, there was no grass and the surface was hard'
Students Farrayi and Guy Gibbon at Ariel School showing Hofer and the crew around the grounds beyond the playground where the UFO was seen
'I couldn't find anything in the area where many of the children had seen a craft. It was difficult, as the ground was already flat, there was no grass and the surface was hard,' he said.
'But some of the children described seeing a craft in a separate location on the savanna, which is where I found impressions in the grass.
'I found two oval shapes, one smaller and one larger. I also found what looked like a wedge-shaped marking in the ground, something had pushed in,' he said.
Hofer was first alerted to the incident the day it occurred by the BBC's man in Zimbabwe, journalist Tim Leech.
Leech accompanied him and local UFO researcher Cynthia Hind to interview the children the following Tuesday.
'Cynthia asked the headmaster if the kids could draw what they'd seen while it was fresh in their minds,' Hofer said.
'There was a very palpable atmosphere of excitement, of course, and also confusion over what it could be.
'Most of the descriptions we got from the kids were very consistent, of a short-looking being,' he added. 'A lot of them described very large eyes.
'They couldn't describe the clothing exactly. But one of them said it reminded them of a diving suit because it was tight-fitting.'
When the schoolchildren were asked to draw their observations, some produced drawings containing two objects, one which was cigar-shaped labeled 'Thursday' and another which was disc-like or oval-shaped, labeled 'Friday'
As for the humanoids some claimed to see emerge from the craft, Hofer said that most of the students' descriptions were 'very consistent of a short-looking being' and 'a lot of them described very large eyes'
One student drew a picture of an alien that allegedly came out of the UFO in front of the group of school children
A drawing of the craft that the students said shone like water in the sun
