In 1994, a strange event occurred at Ariel School in Zimbabwe, where more than 60 students simultaneously claimed to have seen an unidentified flying object (UFO) at close range. The incident attracted the attention of the media and UFO enthusiasts worldwide due to the large number of witnesses and their detailed descriptions of the flying object.
Imagine you’re having a friendly conversation with a stranger and he finally says, “Can you believe it? I saw Bigfoot on Saturday.” You’d probably be skeptical and find it hard to believe. What if a third person chimed in and corroborated the story? And then a fourth, and a fifth, and eventually 62 people came forward to confirm the same story? Was every one of them lying? What if the witnesses were children? But what if none of them admitted to making up the story?
At around 11am, during recess, students at Ariel School were playing in the schoolyard when they suddenly saw a giant silver flying saucer hovering in the sky. The UFO was described as bell-shaped, about 20 metres in diameter, emitting a dazzling light.
This is exactly what happened at Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe in 1994. Except the kids didn’t claim to have seen Bigfoot, they claimed to have seen aliens – not just one, but two aliens plus a spaceship parked outside the school grounds. The aliens walked around, spoke to the kids telepathically, gave them messages about impending environmental disaster, and then left.
All the witnesses in this story were children between the ages of 6 and 12. Their interviews were honest in a way that only children can be. To this day, some people believe that it was all a hoax or a grand illusion. However, others are convinced that it really happened.
According to reports, on the morning of September 16, 1994, students were playing in the schoolyard when they saw a large silver flying saucer hovering in the sky. The UFO was described as being shaped like a bell, about 20 meters in diameter, and emitting a bright light. Some students claimed to have seen humanoid creatures inside the UFO, while others said they heard strange noises coming from the object.
The strange event quickly went viral and attracted the attention of the media, UFO investigators, and the Zimbabwean government. Reporters from around the world flocked to Ariel School to interview students, teachers, and staff.
According to the Daily Mail , a map of the Ariel school campus and the location of the 1994 UFO and alien sightings shows the UFO and aliens lining a patch of grass between the school and a nearby road. Photos of the school grounds show marks left in the hardened soil believed to be left by alien craft, as well as grass flattened in a manner similar to crop circles. The children’s drawings show many variations, but they are generally consistent in their depiction of the UFO and the aliens surrounding it.
Journalist and film critic Victor Stiff later went into more detail about the children’s description. The children said the UFO landed while they were outside. Two “child-sized creatures” were wearing “tight black suits” with large heads and insect-like eyes. According to the children’s story, the aliens sent them a message that humans needed to do a better job of taking care of the Earth before they returned to their ship and flew away.
The students consistently claimed to have seen the UFO, drawing pictures and giving detailed descriptions of the UFO and the creature inside. However, no one other than the students claimed to have seen the UFO, and there was no physical evidence to support their accounts.
In a short time, the Ariel children received a lot of attention. The first person on the scene was Cynthia Hind, a local UFO researcher, who asked the children to draw pictures of what they had seen. Hind came to the school and interviewed the children in small groups the day after the UFO sighting. Later, John Mack, a Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, also took a special interest in the children’s stories.
Accordingly, John Mack released the documentary “Ariel Phenomenon” about the UFO encounter at Ariel School. In addition to this documentary, various YouTube channels such as “The Why Files” have reported on the incident in detail.
Of course, despite the possibility that 62 children would draw and describe the same story of an alien encounter, the story itself is hard to believe. For Ruwa, Zimbabwe, the birthplace of the phenomenon, the 1994 alien encounter at Ariel School has become the stuff of local legend.
Multiple investigations were conducted, including polygraph interviews, but no signs of deception were found. Psychologists theorized that the students may have seen hallucinations or been influenced by their imaginations. However, the students insisted that what they saw was real and did not change their statements.
After numerous investigations, no evidence to confirm the students’ accounts was found. Some psychologists have suggested that the children may have seen hallucinations or been affected by their imaginations. As IFLScience explains, some adults have suggested that the children may have imagined that they saw mythical figures from the folklore of indigenous tribes, the Zvikwambo or Tokoloshes.
Despite the varying explanations, the Ariel School incident remains one of the most documented mass UFO sightings in history. To this day, the event remains a mystery and continues to intrigue UFO enthusiasts and truth seekers.
