MORE than 60 students claim to have witnessed a UFO landing outside their school, in one of the most convincing mass sightings of all time. Three decades ago, dozens of children all claim to have seen a disc-shaped object descend from the sky and land in a field outside their school in Zimbabwe.

This incident is one of the most fascinating UFO cases of all time due to the number of witnesses and the fact that it occurred in Africa, while most high-profile sightings tend to be limited to the West.

And some 28 years after the incident, many children maintain extraordinary claims of what they saw that day, September 16, 1994.

Many have expressed doubts and tried to dismiss the incident as “mass hysteria,” but witnesses remain steadfast.

The children have now had the opportunity to tell their story in the new documentary “Ariel Phenomenon”.

And this comes as UFOs, now often called “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAPs), are being discussed in the heart of Washington DC.

The film was released just days after a historic hearing in which intelligence chiefs admitted there had been 400 sightings and 11 near-misses with military aircraft in the United States.

Ariel Phenomenon director Randall Nickerson told The Sun Online he hopes the conversation is moving in the right direction so witnesses can finally be heard without fear and stigma.

He added that the UFO phenomenon is “global” and said that “every country has these reports.”

“We have to be able to be honest about people’s experiences and say, ‘Well, maybe we don’t understand what’s going on,’” the filmmaker said.

“It’s necessary at this point, we’re seeing more and more of it as our technology develops.

“It’s something we need to discuss and explore – and Ariel is part of that.”

All now adults, the schoolchildren provide convincing testimony of what they saw that day and speak of their difficulties in being believed.

Students at Ariel Rural School were outside for their morning recess at 10 a.m. while all the teachers were in a meeting inside.

The schoolchildren described the incident which lasted about 15 minutes as they saw the object descend from the sky into a field behind the playground.

It is difficult for any witness to something so strange to come forward.

Randall NickersonSome children ran away, others watched, and some even claimed to have seen humanoid beings emerge from the craft – which the children described as having the shape of a silver disc.

The children told their teachers and parents about the incident, and the incident quickly made headlines, including coverage by BBC war correspondent Tim Leach.

Harvard University psychiatry expert Dr. John Mack also arrived to interview the witnesses – and he found their accounts credible.

It is estimated that around 62 children aged between six and twelve all gave similar accounts of what happened that day, saying they saw at least one or more UFOs accompanied by an alien figure.

Some children suggested that they might have been creatures from African folklore rather than aliens, but the stories remained remarkably similar.

Ariel Phenomenon presents the testimony of students, many of whom still have sketches and drawings of what they saw that life-changing day in 1994.

The sketches feature saucer shapes and traditionally alien-like beings with large black eyes.

And many witnesses speak of their pain, facing doubt and ridicule over what happened – with one witness even keeping the incident a secret from her own husband.

Mr Nickerson told The Sun Online: “It is difficult for any witness to something this strange to come forward.

“And it’s also confusing for that person because there’s no cross-reference for that situation – they fall into self-doubt and keep it really secret.”

He added: “These people have things to lose by talking about this, and we have to give them credit because it is their risk.”

The filmmaker remains optimistic about the UFO conversation, saying he was “glad” Congress held the historic hearing on Tuesday.

He said: “Our worldview is going to change and it is going to change slowly – because it has to, it is something we don’t understand.

“It will take time, it will happen slowly – I don’t know how long, but it will take years.”

UFOs have moved from the fringe to a real concern in national security and scientific debate in recent years.

Many former military personnel as well as former Pentagon insiders are now coming forward with incredible accounts of what they saw – with the world facing an apparent reality that there is something unexplained in the sky.