In the early hours of September 22nd 1979, something very strange happened in the waters of the South Indian Ocean, that has puzzled scientists ever since. An American satellite orbiting above known as Vela Hotel 6911 detected a bright double flash below that seemed to indicate a nuclear explosion.
The strange thing was that this explosion was located in one of the most remote parts of the world. Somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean between South Africa and Antarctica, and in between the Crozet Islands owned by France and the Prince Edward Islands owned by South Africa. At the same time this happened, a typhoon was also active around that area, so if someone was testing nuclear weapons out there, they definitely wanted to keep it a secret.
Almost immediately after detection of the flashes by the Vela satellite, the US and NATO began investigating who might have been responsible for this mysterious incident. The US Air Force flew 25 sorties over the area over the next few weeks to collect atmospheric samples, and the UN concluded that the event was very likely of nuclear origin.
Meanwhile in the US, the government asked a group of scientists and experts to find out what the event exactly was. And if it actually was nuclear, who was to blame? But after going through all the data, the group came back with the result that the Vela Incident was most likely caused by a natural event. They theorized that maybe a micro meteoroid had struck the satellite, and caused it to only appear to detect a double flash.
Although this theory is maybe a bit far fetched, the reason they came to this conclusion is because they had failed to find any evidence for a nuclear detonation. Most of the data was apparently inconsistent with a nuclear explosion, and no radiation had been detected at all. And even though they couldn't rule out that it wasn't nuclear, they thought it was much more likely that a natural cause was to blame.
Not much later the UN Security Council changed their position to inconclusive as to whether a secret nuclear test had actually been conducted. But at the same time there was significant evidence that a nuclear test had taken place!
In the past the Vela satellite system had successfully detected 41 nuclear tests across the world! Also the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico had detected an ionospheric anomaly traveling from the supposed detonation site. And even though an American study couldn't find any evidence of radiation, an Australian study did! And on top of that, at the Los Alamos Observatory scientists had determined that the sensors of the Vela satellite were not malfunctioning.
Some scientists have even suggested that there was a coverup, and the investigation that determined the event wasn't nuclear, did so for political reasons!
So what's going on here?
Many people including investigative journalists have claimed over the years that the US government has deliberately hidden the truth of what actually happened. To reinforce this idea, studies done as recently as 2016 and 2018 have both said that the cause was definitely nuclear.
So if that's true, then why hasn't anyone claimed responsibility, or at least been blamed for it?
Although no one knows for sure, it's assumed that the US doesn't want to point out who it was out of fear of putting one of their allies in an awkward situation, and angering them at the same time.
Most researchers believe that the test was conducted by Apartheid South Africa or Israel or even both! It is widely believed that Israel has had a nuclear program since the late 1940's, but the country has never confirmed or denied having nuclear weapons. And it's not known whether when or if the country has tested any of their potential nukes. Working together with South Africa and testing a nuclear bomb in a far away corner of the world would make sense for such a program.
But why would South Africa want to get involved with something like this?
At the time of the alleged test, the South Africans were fighting a war against Angola and Cuba, who were receiving aid from the Soviet Union.
Due to South Africa's Apartheid racial discrimination policies, their government was ignored by the rest of the world, and the UN had passed an arms embargo against them. It was hard for them to find friends in the world, but they found one in Israel, and it is speculated that they worked together on their nuclear weapons research. Israel wanted nukes as a deterrent against their Arab neighbors, while South Africa wanted them as a deterrent against the communists in Angola.
South Africa did in fact develop six functioning atomic bombs, but after the end of the Apartheid regime they made this public and dismantled all of them. Neither South Africa or Israel have ever admitted to testing any nuclear weapons though!
The US may have known the truth behind the Vela Incident for decades, but has refused to make this public, because it would complicate relations with South Africa and or Israel, both of which are major US allies. On top of all the evidence that has been collected over the years, a South African naval commander convicted of spying for the Soviets, has claimed that the Vela Incident was indeed a top secret joint South African and Israeli nuclear test.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the Vela Incident and we might never know what exactly happened there. But one thing is for sure, something very strange happened there on that day!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this article!