by Leslie Kean
But there was more to come. Suddenly, at 6:45 p.m., the policemen saw a second craft, which appeared from behind the woods and made a forward tilting maneuver, exposing the upper side of the fuselage. They described a dome on the upper structure with rectangular windows, lit on the inside. It then departed to the north. About forty minutes later, at 7:23 p.m., the first craft stopped emitting the red light balls and departed to the southwest. The two policemen, who were in radio contact with their dispatch, learned that another UAP had been reported in the north of Eupen, and they drove to an observation point, south of the highway E 40. From that position, they saw the UAP moving to the village of Henri-Chapelle, where two of their police colleagues, Dieter Plummans and Peter Nicoll (no relation to Heinrich Nicoll), saw the craft approaching from the direction of Eupen.
Plummans and Peter Nicoll stopped their car near a monastery, when they observed the craft with three very strong spotlights and a flashing red central light, at a distance of 100 meters (300 feet) and an estimated height of 80 meters (250 feet). The craft was immobile and silent, but it suddenly transmitted a hissing sound and reduced the intensity of the lights. Simultaneously, a red light ball came out of the center and headed straight downward, not far from their position.
The policemen were both terrified. The light ball turned from its vertical path into a horizontal path, and disappeared from view behind some trees. The craft moved then right above the police vehicle and headed to the northeast. They followed it for approximately five miles until they lost sight of it. Nevertheless, their colleagues Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert Von Montigny—the two policemen to first observe the objects a few hours earlier—could follow its movements from their position south of the highway.
In total, thirteen policemen reported seeing the craft at eight different locations in the vicinity of Eupen. Many civilians also saw the objects. For example, a family of four driving on a highway west of Liège saw a rectangular platform above them, made visible by the highway lights. They reported that it slowly passed overhead at a low altitude, with a spotlight in each corner.
Sketch by a mother who observed a craft while on the highway with her family. SOBEPS archives
A total of seventy reported sightings made on November 29 were fully investigated and none of these sightings could be explained by conventional technology. Considering that approximately one person out of ten makes the effort to report their experience, the team of investigators and I estimate that more than 1,500 people must have seen the phenomenon at more than seventy locations from different angles during this afternoon and evening.
After the initial sightings on November 29, a series of sightings took place on December 1 (four observations) and December 11, 1989, when twenty-one witnesses reported similar descriptions of a triangular craft.
On December 1, air weather forecaster Francesco Valenzano and his young daughter, walking at the Square Nicolai in Ans, near Liège, saw a large slow-moving craft approaching at low altitude. The craft made a tour of the square without making any noise and when it passed directly over their heads, Valenzano noticed a delta shape with three lights in a triangular position and a red rotating light in the middle that was positioned lower than the belly of the craft.
Valenzano’s drawing included red and blue lights on the leading edge and four lights underneath. SOBEP archives
On December 11, a twelve-year-old boy, along with his parents, grandparents, and sister, witnessed a similar-looking craft in the vicinity of their home for approximately fifteen minutes. It was at first immobile, and then started moving toward their house to pass vertically overhead. The boy’s drawing shows a frontal view (bottom right), a view when it was almost overhead (bottom left), and a view when it was fully overhead (top). The different shapes could explain why some witnesses reported a craft that was not triangular. Indeed, the drawing shows that the perception of the shape can vary depending on observation angle and altitude.
About fifteen minutes later, a similar craft was observed approximately 97 kilometers (60 miles) more to the west, and several subsequent reports followed. At 6:45 p.m., Colonel André Amond, a civil engineer of the Belgian Army, was driving with his wife when they both saw three large light panels and a red flashing light at their right. He was driving faster than the craft, but when they stopped and got out of their car to observe the phenomenon, the light panels caught up and turned toward them. Suddenly, they saw a giant spotlight, about twice the size of the full moon, which approached them to an estimated distance of 100 meters. The colonel’s wife was frightened and asked to leave. As he opened the car door, the craft made a very tight left-hand turn at a speed of approximately 10 mph and three other lights appeared at the underside of the craft, in a triangular form with a central pulsing light.
The craft from three angles, drawn by a boy in Trooze, near Liège. SOBEPS archives
Colonel Amond sent his drawing of the UAP’s ventral side to the Belgian minister of defense. A. Amond
There was no sound and, although it was a full moon, the witnesses didn’t see the structure of the craft. After completing its turn, it suddenly accelerated very rapidly, only to vanish in the darkness of the night. Colonel Amond sent a detailed report to the Belgian defense minister. He ascertained that this craft was not a hologram, helicopter, military aircraft, balloon, motorized Ultra Light, or any other known aerial vehicle.
During a recent review of the investigation, it was learned that another witness had seen the object with three bright lights and a pulsating red light approximately five minutes before Amond and his wife. The exact timing could be reconstructed because she was walking home from the train that arrived at Ernage railway station twenty minutes before the Amonds spotted the craft.
On April 4, 1990, at 10:00 p.m. in the town of Petit-Rechain, a lady was walking her dog in her courtyard when she noticed the spotlights of a craft hovering above her home. She alerted her partner, who rushed outside with his newly bought camera. The camera was loaded with color slides, but only two shots remained on the film. Leaning against the wall to avoid instability, he took two photographs, the first with a manual exposure time of one to two seconds, while the craft was banking to the left. Subsequently, it started moving and disappeared out of sight behind the nearby houses. After the film was processed, the photographer saw four light spots on one slide and nothing on the second, which he threw away.
Several weeks later, he showed the remaining photograph to his fellow metalworkers during their lunch break in the factory. One of his friends contacted a local journalist, who published the photograph in a French magazine. From there, Belgian military academy experts were notified and requested the original slide for analysis. A team under the direction of Professor Marc Acheroy discovered that a triangular shape became visible when overexposing the slide.
After that, the original color slide was further analyzed by François Louange, specialist in satellite imagery with the French national space research center, CNES; Dr. Richard Haines, former senior scientist with NASA; and finally Professor André Marion, doctor in nuclear physics and professor at the University of Paris-Sud and also with CNES.
The major findings were:
No effect of infrared radiation.
No indication of any tampering with the slide.
The camera was stable, but the craft was moving slowly and had approximately a 45-degree bank when the picture was taken.
The rotation of the spotlights did not occur around one central point.
The middle light is very different from the three other lights.
The lights are positioned symmetrically with respect to the structure of the craft.
Professor Marion’s more recent analysis in 2002 used more sophisticated technology. He confirmed the previous findings, while explaining a new discovery: Numeric treatment of the photograph revealed a halo of something lighter surrounding the craft. Special optical processing shows that within the halo, the light particles form a certain pattern around th
e craft like snowflakes in turbulence. This is very similar to the pattern of iron filings which is caused by “the lines of force” in a magnetic field.2 This could indicate that the craft is moving by using a magnetoplasmadynamic propulsion system as suggested by Professor Auguste Meessen3 in one of his studies.
Many hidden elements were revealed only through the analysis of this photograph, showing that the picture was not faked. The experts noted especially that the unique characteristics of the lights are very specific and said such an effect would not occur if the picture was a hoax.4 Also, the findings of the experts are consistent with the account of the photographer, who initially didn’t think much of his shot of four strange lights and kept it in a drawer for weeks before showing it to anyone. He was not sure what it was, and for a while had not given it much thought.
Although the vast majority of the reports described a triangular craft with three spotlights and one flashing light at the bottom, as was captured in the Petit-Rechain photograph, a number of witnesses reported very special shapes and characteristics. On April 22, 1990, seven reports of triangles were submitted plus a more unusual report by two workers in Basècles, southwest of Brussels. They were in their factory courtyard shortly before midnight, when suddenly two enormous bright spotlights appeared, illuminating the courtyard. A huge trapezoid platform moved very slowly and silently slightly above the chimney, at one point covering the whole courtyard (100 × 60 meters, or 330 × 200 feet). The two men described six lights and said the color of the object was grayish. They saw structures at the bottom of the platform that looked to them like “an aircraft carrier turned upside down.”
Another peculiar sighting, strikingly similar to the one at the Basècles factory, occurred on March 15, 1991, in Auderghem, near Brussels. An electronic engineer woke up during the night and heard a barely audible, high-frequency whistling tone. He looked out the window and saw a large rectangular craft at very low altitude with irregular structures on the bottom. Slipping on a jacket, he went upstairs to an upper-level terrace and watched the dark gray craft drift overhead very slowly without lights. The whistling tone had stopped and the craft was now silent.
An artist’s rendition of the “inverted aircraft carrier” at the Basècles factory. SOBEPS archives
A witness’s drawing of a rectangular craft over Auderghem, similar to the craft seen at Basècles a year prior. SOBEPS archives
A few days before, on March 12, 1991, a total of twenty-seven reports were filed from a small area southwest of Liège. On two occasions a craft was seen over the nuclear power plant of Thiange. One witness reported that it was directly above the red lights on the top of one of the enormous chimneys. It hovered there for approximately one minute, beaming one of its lights on the outside structure while another light pointed directly into one of the chimneys. After it had finished its “inspection,” the UAP started moving slowly and flew straight through the enormous white plume of the chimney before disappearing in the dark.
Occasionally, a craft appeared to respond to the presence or actions of observers, as described earlier when Col. Amond stepped out of his car and the object immediately approached. On July 26, 1990, at 10:35 p.m., Mr. and Mrs. Marcel H. were also in their car, passing through Grâce-Hollogne and driving towards Seraing, when they looked out and saw an immobile object in the sky. It had the shape of an equilateral triangle that they estimated to be about twelve meters on each side. The object was dark, but a white-light belt, like a large neon tube, ran along two sides. The witnesses could see three spotlights beaming down toward the ground; they seemed to be detached from the object but connected to each other by a sort of support “bracket.” Also visible were two flashing lights, one red and one green, on the underside of the craft. The base—the side with two white spotlights—was facing toward them.
Drawing by Mr. Marcel H. He and his wife saw red and green flashing lights toward the center of the triangle, three large white lights, and a white neon tube. SOBEPS archives
Surprised, Mr. H. said to his wife: “For the fun of it, I am going to flash my lights.” Mr. H. flashed his car lights twice—off and on, off and on. At this same moment, the two white lights at the base of the triangle rotated, tilted toward the two passengers below, and flashed off and on three times. The illumination was bright, but not blinding. Then, keeping the lights pointed at the moving car, the object proceeded toward the vehicle and, moving with the base forward, positioned itself to the right at a distance of approximately 100 meters and a height between 60 and 100 meters. (It is interesting that Col. Amond also reported a distance of 100 meters after the object approached.) It then made a banking turn and, still moving with its base forward, flew in the same direction as the car, following it as it continued its downhill course toward Seraing. Although the hill was rather steep, the UFO moved with the terrain and maintained a constant height above the sloping ground, flying at the same speed that the car was driving (60–70 km/hr). By the time they approached the bridge at Seraing, Mr. and Mrs. H. were quite frightened. Finally, the object crossed the river Meuse right next to them without making any noise, and then started to climb, rapidly departing in the direction of Grâce-Hollogne.
A lengthy book could be written with nothing but witness reports and drawings collected during the two peak years. I have presented only a sample. I can conclude with confidence that the observations during what is now known as the Belgian wave were not caused by mass hysteria. The witnesses interviewed by the investigators were sincere and honest. They did not previously know each other. Most were very surprised by what they saw, and today, twenty years later, they are still prepared to confirm their unusual experience. Those close to the craft were frightened or terrified; one fell off his bike and was in shock. Several witnesses had high-ranking functions and preferred not to reveal their names to the media.
Of the approximately 2,000 reported cases registered during the Belgian wave, 650 were investigated and more than 500 of them remain unexplained. It is logical to assume that many thousands more witnessed UAP activities and did not report them. The findings were exceptional. More than 300 cases involved witnesses seeing a craft at less than 300 meters (1,000 feet), and over 200 sightings lasted longer than five minutes. Sometimes observers were right underneath the craft.
Although many questions remain unanswered, analysis shows that a number of points can be made with certainty, and some conclusions can be drawn.
Most witnesses reported the craft had a triangular shape, but a number of reports mentioned other shapes, such as a diamond, cigar, or egg, and, in a few spectacular cases, an aircraft carrier turned upside down.
The reported air activities were unauthorized, yet were observed by multiple witnesses while not registering on surveillance radars.
It can be deduced that on both November 29 and December 11 at least two crafts were active at the same time. On November 29, two policemen reported two at the same time in different locations, and also different shapes were reported. On December 11, witnesses reported seeing a craft at the same time at different locations.
On several occasions, the craft made a tilting maneuver allowing observers to see its upper side, revealing a dome at the top. Some reported windows or lights on the side of the craft; others saw lit windows in the dome.
No electromagnetic effects, such as radio interference, were experienced.
Not one aggressive or hostile act was noted.
The flying objects didn’t try to hide and, in several cases, moved toward the observers on the ground. Some witnesses reported that crafts responded to their signals, such as switching one of its lights off and on when they flashed the headlights of their car.
The crafts performed in ways not possible by known technology. They were able to remain stationary and hover, even in unusual positions such as vertical and/or banking at 45 degrees or more. They could fly at slow speeds and accelerate extremely fast, faster than any known aircraft, and they remained silent, or made only a very slight noi
se, even when hovering or accelerating. The objects were equipped with very large spotlights, with a diameter of more than one meter (three feet), capable of intensively illuminating the ground from an altitude of 100 meters (330 feet) or more. The integrity of these lights was variable—in some cases, witnesses reported that the lights were not illuminating the ground and were not blinding. Experts are convinced that the spotlights are of a very special nature; the size and intensity have not been seen on any aircraft before. These crafts carried a red light from underneath, at the bottom of their underside and apparently unattached to the structure, which seemed to pulsate rather than rotate. On three occasions, red light balls left the structure, and on two occasions they were seen returning to the craft.
Some of these individual performance capabilities may be explainable in isolation, but the combination of all of them makes them highly unusual, even enigmatic. The technology used by these crafts was so advanced that even today, twenty years later, it is not available.
The most important conclusion is that there must have been air activities of unknown origin in the airspace of Belgium. The number of cases and the credibility of the vast number of witnesses leave us with an intriguing mystery.
