Ah the "Vela" incident an unidentified double flash of light detected by a United States Vela satellite on September 22, 1979.

Discounted after extensive investigation for the following reasons:

- Although a double flash was detected there was a discrepancy in bhangmeter readings.

- The satellite was old and two years past it's "sell-by-date" its EMP sensors were no longer functioning.

- United States Air Force WC-135B aircraft flew 25 sorties in the area soon after, but failed to detect any sign of radiation.

- There was no corroborating seismic or hydro-acoustic data.

- A special panel was convened to examine the data recorded by the satellite. The panel's report stated "Based on our experience in related scientific assessments," it was their collective judgement that the signal was spurious.

- The "explosion" (Flash) was picked up by only one of the two Vela satellites which seems to support the panel's assertion. The Vela satellites had previously detected 41 atmospheric tests, each of which was subsequently confirmed by other means. The absence of corroboration of a nuclear origin for the Vela Incident also suggests that the signal was spurious.

- Since the fall of apartheid, South Africa has disclosed most of the information on its nuclear weapons program, and according to the subsequent International Atomic Energy Agency report, South Africa could not have constructed such a device until November 1979, two months after the incident.

- The IAEA reported that all South African nuclear devices had been accounted for when it monitored South Africa's abandonment of it's nuclear programme.

- In February 1994 Commodore Dieter Gerhardt, a convicted Soviet spy and commander of South Africa's Simon's Town naval base at the time, talked about the incident upon his release from prison. He said:

"Although I was not directly involved in planning or carrying out the operation, I learned unofficially that the flash was produced by an Israeli-South African test, code-named Operation Phenix. The explosion was clean and was not supposed to be detected. But they were not as smart as they thought, and the weather changed – so the Americans were able to pick it up."

He subsequently admitted that no South African naval vessels had been involved, and that he had no first hand knowledge of a test.

- On April 20, 1997, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, quoted South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad as confirming that the flash over the Indian Ocean was indeed from a South African nuclear test. Soon afterwards Pahad reported that he had been misquoted and that he was merely repeating the rumours that had been circulating for years.