Date:
October 1989
Location: Belgium
From
October 1989 throughout 1990, hundreds of reports of lighted
objects, frequently described as enormous and triangular
in shape were recorded in Belgium. Air Force supersonic
F-16 jets chased these strange objects, which were simultaneously
tracked by both airborne and ground radars. The Belgian
Government cooperated fully with civilian UFO investigators,
an action without precedent in the history of government
involvement in this field.
Eyewitness
drawings and reconstructions of triangular craft seen
in Belgium between 1989
and 1993. Courtesy of SOBEPS. (Credit: Berliner)
Source:
Don Berliner
From
October 1989 throughout 1990, hundreds of reports of lighted
objects, frequently described as enormous and triangular
in shape were recorded in Belgium. Air Force supersonic
F-16 jets chased these strange objects, which were simultaneously
tracked by both airborne and ground radars. The Belgian
Government cooperated fully with civilian UFO investigators,
an action without precedent in the history of government
involvement in this field.
The
Chief of Operations of the Royal Belgian Air Force, Colonel
Wilfred De Brouwer (now Major General and Deputy Chief
of the Belgian Air Force), set up a Special Task Force
Unit to work closely with the Gendarmerie to investigate
the sightings as soon as they were reported. Among the
thousands of witnesses were many military and police officers,
pilots, scientists and engineers. The wave was documented
by the Belgian Society for the Study of Space Phenomena
(SOBEPS), a private organization from Brussels, which
published two thick volumes on the UFO wave.
The
first important case was a multiple-witness observation
of a strange aircraft, reported by gendarmes on patrol
near the town of Eupen, not far from the German border.
Auguste Meessen, professor of physics at the Catholic
University in Louvain and a scientific consultant of SOBEPS,
summarized the case:
"On
November 29, 1989, a large craft with triangular shape
flew over the town of Eupen. The gendarmes von Montigny
and Nicol found it near the road linking Aix-la-Chapelle
and Eupen. It was stationary in the air, above a field
which it illuminated with three powerful beams. The beams
emanated from large circular surfaces near the triangle's
corners. In the center of the dark and flat understructure,
there was some kind of 'red gyrating beacon.' The object
did not make any noise. When it began to move, the gendarmes
headed towards a small road in the area over which they
expected the object to fly. Instead, it made a half-turn
and continued slowly in the direction of Eupen, following
the road at low altitude. It was seen by different witnesses
as it flew above houses and near City Hall."
Sightings
continued to be logged by SOBEPS and the Gendarmerie during
the fall and winter of 1989-1990. Most witnesses described
seeing dark, triangular objects with white lights at the
corners and a red flashing light in the middle. Many of
the objects were said to have hovered, with some of them
then suddenly accelerating to a very high speed. Most
of the objects made no sound, but some were said to have
emitted a faint humming like an electric motor.
Public
interest in the wave reached its peak with a radar/visual
and jet scramble incident on the night of March 30-31,
1990. This scramble was seen and reported by hundreds
of citizens. A preliminary report prepared by Major P.
Lambrechts of the Belgian Air Force General Staff was
released to SOBEPS. The "Report concerning the observation
of UFOs during the night of March 30 to 31, 1990,"
includes a detailed chronology of events and dismisses
several hypotheses such as optical illusions, balloons,
meteorological inversions, military aircraft, holographic
projections, etc.
The
incident began at 22:50 hrs. on March 30 when the Gendarmerie
telephoned the radar "master controller at Glons"
to report "three unusual lights forming an equilateral
triangle." More gendarmes confirmed the lights
in the following minutes. When the NATO facility at Semmerzake
detected an unknown target at 23:49 hrs., a decision to
scramble two F-16 fighters was made. The jets took off
at 0:05 hrs. from Beauvechain, the nearest air base, on
March 31 and flew for just over an hour. According to
Major Lambrecht's report:
"The
aircraft had brief radar contacts on several occasions,
[but the pilots]... at no time established visual contact
with the UFOs... each time the pilots were able to secure
a lock on one of the targets for a few seconds, there
resulted a drastic change in the behavior of the detected
targets... [During the first lock-on at 0:13 hrs.] their
speed changed in a minimum of time from 150 to 970 knots
[170 to 1,100 mph and 275 to 1,800 km./hr.] and from 9,000
to 5,000 feet [2,700 m. to 1,500 m.], returning then to
11,000 feet [3,300 m.] in order to change again to close
to ground level."
The
Electronic War Center (EWC) of the Air Force undertook
a much more detailed technical analysis of the F-16 computerized
radar tapes, led by Col. Salmon and physicist M. Gilmard.
Their study was completed in 1992 and was later reviewed
by Professor Meessen.
Although
many aspects of this case still remain unexplained, Meessen
and SOBEPS have basically accepted the Gilmard-Salmon
hypothesis that some of the radar contacts were really
"angels" caused by a rare meteorological phenomenon.
This became evident in four lock-ons, "where the
object descended to the ground with calculations showing
negative [emphasis added] altitude... It was evidently
impossible that an object could penetrate the ground,
but it was possible that the ground could act as a mirror."
Meessen explained how the high velocities measured by
the Doppler radar of the F-16 fighters might result from
interference effects. He points out, however, that there
is another radar trace for which there is no explanation
to date. As for the visual sightings of this event by
the gendarmes and others, Meessen suggests that they could
possibly have been caused by stars seen under conditions
of "exceptional atmospheric refraction."
In
a recent interview, Major General De Brouwer summarized
his reflections on this complex case:
"What
impressed me the most were the witnesses, some of whom
I know personally and convinced me that, in fact, something
was going on. These were credible people and they told
clearly what they saw."
"We
always look for possibilities which can cause errors in
the radar systems. We can not exclude that there was electromagnetic
interference, but of course we can not exclude the possibility
that there were objects in the air. On at least one occasion
there was a correlation between the radar contacts of
one ground radar and one F-16 fighter. This weakens the
theory that all radar contacts were caused by electromagnetic
interference. If we add all the possibilities, the question
is still open, so there is no final answer."
The
Belgian UFO wave yielded a rich volume of good quality
cases and many videos and photographs. One strikingly
clear photograph of a triangular-shaped craft was taken
at Petit-Rechain in early April 1990. As of 1994, it remained
unexplained after numerous analyses, including a thorough
computerized study at the Royal Military Academy. (see
below)
Although
public interest in the Belgian wave reached its peak in
the 1990-91 period, SOBEPS was still documenting cases
in late 1993. Marc Valckenaer listed the main characteristics
of the Belgian UFOs in the latest SOBEPS study. Various
shapes such as round, rectangular and cigar were reported,
but the wave was dominated by triangular objects. Some
of their characteristics included:
Irregular displacement (zig-zag, instantaneous change
of trajectory, etc.).
Displacement following the contours of the terrain.
Varying speeds of displacement (including very slow motion).
Stationary flight (hovering).
Overflight of urban and industrial centers.
Sound effects (faint humming... to total silence).
Because
the bulk of the Belgian sightings described triangular-shaped
objects, many European and American researchers and journalists
speculated that these were caused by either F-117A stealth
fighters or some other revolutionary U.S. secret military
aircraft. However, the only truly unusual characteristic
of the F-117 is its near-invisibility to radar and infrared
detection - it looks, flies and sounds like any other
sub-sonic jet airplane. Similar claims about the presence
of other American advanced airplanes are even harder to
substantiate: the A-12 Avenger II was never built, and
the existence of the TR-3A "manta" is unconfirmed.
Neither has even been rumored to be able to fly in the
manner reported for the Belgian UFOs.
Despite
the fact that the secret military aircraft hypothesis
has been denied officially over and over again by the
Belgian Ministry of Defense and Air Force, as well as
by the U.S. Embassy in Brussels and the U.S. Defense Intelligence
Agency, some publications continue to champion the stealth
fighter theory.
In
a letter to French researcher Renaud Marhic, the Minister
of Defense at the time of the UFO wave, Leo Delcroix,
wrote:
"Unfortunately,
no explanation has been found to date. The nature and
origin of the phenomenon remain unknown. One theory can,
however, be definitely dismissed since the Belgian Armed
Forces have been positively assured by American authorities
that there has never been any sort of American aerial
test flight."
Source:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case1125.htm