The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
THIRTY THREE years ago, thousands of Belgian citizens reported mysterious platforms flying silently over rooftops. The Royal Belgian Air Force got involved and cooperated fully with civilian investigators. To this day, however, the origins of these craft remain unknown.
It’s hard to convey the excitement caused by the Belgian UFO wave if you were not following UFO news back in 1989 and the early 1990s. There was no shortage of UFO reports back then, and interest in the phenomenon was at a high. The sightings and photos from Gulf Breeze, Florida, dominated the American scene, wild UFO reports and stories coming out of the old Soviet Union received huge international media attention, and the Mexican video wave took off in 1991. Yet the Belgian wave seemed to top all of these stories for awhile. The reports out of this small country, headquarters of both the European Commission and NATO, received unprecedented coverage, making even the front page of the Wall Street Journal on October 10, 1990, with a story entitled, “Belgium Scientists Seriously Pursue A Triangular UFO.”
The classic triangular-shaped UFO described by hundreds of eyewitnesses during the Belgium wave: sketch by witness used to create reconstruction of the object seen at the top of story.
Credit: SOBEPS
There were many reasons for the interest generated by the Belgian wave. One was the quality of the reports themselves, the bulk of which were registered in the French-speaking region of Wallonia. There were no landings or humanoid sightings but lots of detailed multiple-witness sightings of flying platforms moving slowly and silently above rooftops. Shapes varied, but the predominant form was triangular or delta-shaped crafts. Some of the descriptions were so precise that traditional explanations of misidentified natural phenomena or conventional aircraft were ruled out. Instead, stealth fighters and other U.S. secret military aircraft became the favorite explanations suggested by skeptics, but these were quickly ruled out by the Royal Belgian Air Force (RBAF). Another reason for the wave’s importance was that it was carefully investigated and documented by a local UFO organization called SOBEPS (Belgian society for the study of space phenomena).
SOBEPS was formed in 1971 by Lucien Clerebaut, Michel Bougard, and others, and built a small but highly dedicated cadre of field investigators. By the end of the wave in 1993, SOBEPS had collected over two thousand eyewitness reports comprising twenty thousand pages, four hundred hours of audio tapes, and six hundred full inquiries. Five hundred and forty cases remained unexplained. SOBEPS also had the assistance of top-notch scientists, including Léon Brenig, a nonlinear dynamics theorist at the Free University in Brussels, and Professor Auguste Meessen, a physicist from Catholic University at Louvain. Regarding his work with SOBEPS, Dr. Brenig has said, “here is an opportunity where we can apply the scientific method.” Brenig himself became a witness of the so-called Belgian triangle while driving in the Ardennes on March 18, 1990. The whole dossier was eventually published by SOPEPS in two massive volumes, five hundred pages each, entitled Vague d’OVNI sur la Belgique (UFO Wave ver Belgium), published in 1991 and 1994 respectively. Due to financial difficulties, SOBEPS dissolved on December 31, 2007, but some of its members formed a new, smaller organization called COBEPS (Belgian committee for the study of space phenomena) to preserve the archives and work done for thirty-six years.
The two volumes published by SOBEPS entitled, “UFO Wavever OBelgium.”
Credit: SOBEPS
A final and key element in the credibility of the Belgian UFO wave was the participation and validation by the RBAF, which showed an unusual degree of openness. As the Belgian wave gained steam, the Belgian Ministry of Defence was deluged with queries from the public and the media. The task fell upon the chief of operations of the air force, Col. Wilfried De Brouwer, who was later promoted to major general and deputy chief of the RBAF. Now retired from the service, Gen. De Brouwer has continued to speak about the wave. He was one of the many international officials who spoke at the famous event at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, DC, in November 2007, organized by filmmaker James Fox and journalist Leslie Kean. “The Belgian UFO wave was exceptional and the air force could not identify the nature, origin and intentions of the reported phenomena,” said De Brouwer at the NPC. He also gave a detailed presentation on the wave at the MUFON International UFO Symposium in San Jose, California, in July 2008, and was one of five generals to write an essay in Leslie Kean’s new book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record.
Although the RBAF scrambled jets on three occasions during the wave, Gen. De Brouwer has explained on various occasions that they didn’t have the manpower or resources to mount a full-fledged investigation of their own, so instead they took the unusual route of cooperating fully with SOBEPS. The radar data was turned to Prof. Meessen for analysis, and Gen. De Brouwer agreed to write the postface for SOBEPS’s first volume when he was still in the service. “I must acknowledge that I somewhat hesitated when SOBEPS asked me to contribute my share to this book,” he wrote. “Indeed, I am not a UFO specialist and, moreover, it is quite delicate for somebody who occupies an official function to put on paper his personal ideas on such a disputed issue. However, I estimate that I would not have been honest towards the SOBEPS if I had refused. The air force always played a fair game on this subject and I regard this postface as a complementary element to the exceptional file written by the people of SOBEPS.”
THE EUPEN INCIDENT
Although some sightings were reported in October 1989, the first important incident of the Belgian wave took place a month later on November 29 around the small town of Eupen, which is in a region of Belgium near the German border. This initial case put the so-called “Belgian triangle” on the map and led to the start of the RBAF’s involvement. There were both daytime and nighttime sightings, although the latter were lengthier and more detailed. Gen. De Brouwer explained in his essay for Leslie Kean’s book, “a total of seventy reported sightings made on November 29 were fully investigated and none of these sightings could be explained by conventional technology. The team of investigators and I estimate that approximately fifteen hundred people must have seen the phenomenon at more than seventy different locations from different angles during this afternoon and evening.” There were a total of thirteen gendarmes (policemen) who saw the UFO from eight different locations around Eupen. Prof. Meessen summarized the case in SOBEPS’s book:
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.
In his 2008 MUFON lecture, Gen. De Brouwer provided additional details on this sighting: “The UAP [Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon] emitted repeatedly and simultaneously two red light beams with a red light ball at the spearhead of the beam. Subsequently, the red balls returned to the craft.” There was also apparently a second triangular craft, which made “a forward tilting maneuver, exposing the upper side of the fuselage,” continued De Brouwer. “They [gendarmes] saw a dome with rectangular windows, lighted up at the inside. It then disappeared to the North.” Two more gendarmes saw one of the craft from a monastery nearby; “one is currently the head of the police in that area, he was scared like hell,” added De Brouwer.
Statistical chart of Belgian sightings between October 1989 and September 1990, showing peaks in the November-December period and a second one in April.
Credit: SOBEPS
The Eupen incident was followed by many other UFO sightings, including several reported on December 11, 1989. One of the witnesses that evening was a personal acquaintance of Gen. De Brouwer, Col. André Amond, a civil engineer in the Belgian Army. Col. Armond worked next door to Gen. De Brouwer and wrote a detailed report for the Ministry of Defence. Col. Armond was driving with his wife around 6:45 p.m., when they noticed a strange object with flashing red lights. They stopped the car and got out to see it better. “Suddenly, they saw a giant spotlight, about twice the size of the full moon, which approached them to an estimated distance of 100 meters,” wrote De Brouwer, adding that “the colonel’s wife was frightened and asked to leave.” In his report to the Ministry, Armond “ascertained that this craft was not a hologram, helicopter, military aircraft, balloon, motorized Ultra Light, or any other known aerial vehicle.”
Various shapes were reported throughout the wave, including round, rectangular, and cigar-shaped, but the majority were triangular objects. Gen. De Brouwer notes that the differences may also be due to the eyewitnesses’ viewing angles. Researcher Marc Valckenaers listed some of the characteristics of the UFOs in SOBEPS’s second volume about the wave, including: 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, and sound effects (faint humming to total silence).
Reconstruction of the incredible rectangular flying platform seen by two factory workers on April 22, 1990, described as “an aircraft carrier turned upside down.”
Credit: SOBEPS
One of the strangest reports came from two factory workers from the town of Basècles, southwest of Brussels, who saw a huge trapezoid flying platform (330 x 200 feet) just before midnight on April 22, 1990. The object moved slowly and silently, covering the entire factory courtyard. In the SOBEPS report, the factory workers described the UFO as “an aircraft carrier turned upside down.” Despite the science-fiction quality of this sighting, an almost identical report was filed nearly a year later, on March 15, 1991, by an electronic engineer in Auderghem, near Brussels, who woke up in the middle of the night when he “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,” wrote Gen. De Brouwer.
One characteristic of the Belgian wave was how close the objects were flying above the rooftops, as shown with this flying rectangular platform.
Credit: SOBEPS
Another view of the rectangular flying platform above the rooftop and sketch showing where the witness saw it.
Credit: SOBEPS
THE F-16 SCRAMBLE EPISODE
If the Eupen multiple-witness sightings of November 1989 triggered the Belgian wave, the jet fighter scramble incident during the night of March 30, 1990 marked the peak of public interest and global media coverage. The Belgian Air Force had scrambled jets on two prior occasions without positive results. The December 5, 1989 scramble was unsuccessful; when the jet reached the sky, the UFO was gone. Additionally, the December 16, 1989 case turned out to be a false alarm; the authorities quickly determined that it was a laser projection reflected by a cloud layer. Following these two fiascos, the RBAF implemented a new policy that jets would be scrambled only when a sighting was detected on radar and was visually confirmed on the ground by the police.
The SOBEPS team visiting the Royal Belgian Air Force radar facility at Glons: in the center group, left, the Society’s chairman Lucien Clerebaut and right, physicist Prof. Auguste Meessen, next to military officer.
Credit: SOBEPS
As put in a preliminary report prepared by Major P. Lambrechts of the RBAF, entitled “Report Concerning the Observation of UFOs During the Night of March 30 to 31, 1990,” the incident began at 10:50 p.m. 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. When the NATO facility at Semmerzake detected an unknown target at 11:49 p.m., a decision to scramble two F-16 fighters was made. The jets took off at 12:05 a.m. from Beauvechain, the nearest air base, and flew for just over an hour. According to Major Lambrechts’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 12:13 a.m.] their speed changed in a minimum of time from 150 to 970 knots [170 to 1,100 mph] and from 9,000 to 5,000 feet, returning then to 11,000 feet in order to change again to close to ground level.
When Col. De Brouwer showed the computerized radar images of the UFO tracked by the F-16 onboard radar system in a heavily attended press conference at the Ministry of Defence on July 11, 1990, the international media went into a frenzy. Transcripts of the radio communications between ace fighter pilots, Capt. Yves Meelbergs, Lt. Rudy Verrijt, and the Glons Control Reporting Center near Liege, were also released and provide some dramatic moments. The transcripts paint a picture of the jets chasing ghost radar echoes that appear and disappear and then reappear again, but at no time are the pilots able to establish visual contact with the supposed objects. Belgium’s Electronic War Center (EWC) eventually undertook a detailed technical analysis of the F-16 computerized radar tapes, completed by Col. Salmon and physicist M. Gilmard in 1992, and later reviewed by Prof. Meessen.
An F-16 jet fighter of the Royal Belgian Air Force like the ones scrambled on the night of March 30-31, 1990.
Credit: Bernard Thouanel
Although some aspects of this case still remain unexplained, Meessen and SOBEPS accepted the Gilmard-Salmon hypothesis that most of the radar contacts were really echoes caused by a rare meteorological phenomenon. This became evident in four lock-ons, explained Meessen, “where the object descended to the ground with calculations showing negative 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 pointed out, however, that there was 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 suggested that they could possibly have been caused by stars seen under conditions of “exceptional atmospheric refraction.”
One frame from the F-16 onboard radar system showing the UFO lock-on during the March 1990 scramble episode, shown by the RBAF at a famous press conference in July 1990.
Credit: RBAF/ Bernard Thouanel
In a 1995 telephone interview, Gen. De Brouwer summarized his reflections on this complex case: “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.” De Brouwer took a more detached view of the F-16 scramble episode, however, in his 2008 MUFON lecture and his 2010 essay included in Kean’s book: “The conclusion of the Air Force, therefore, was that the evidence was insufficient to prove that there were real crafts in the air on that occasion.”
THE PETIT-RECHAIN PHOTO
The famous color slide of the Belgian triangle photographed in Petit-Rechain in early April 1990.
Seldom has the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words become more true than in the case of the extraordinary photograph of a flying triangle taken in the small town of Petit-Rechain in April 1990. This color slide became the emblematic symbol of the Belgian UFO wave. It has been published and broadcast in television programs all over the world, and it appears on the cover of the two SOBEPS volumes on the Belgian wave. It’s also one of the most analyzed UFO photos in the history of ufology. During my trip to Brussels in 1995, I had the opportunity to talk at length with Patrick Ferryn, the investigator who researched the case initially and wrote the chapter about it in the SOBEPS book. Ferryn gave me copies of the photo and samples of computer enhancements made by Marc Acheroy, professor of electricity at the Royal Military School, where the image was analyzed by the Signal Treatment Center. The details of how the photo was taken are fairly simple and straightforward.
The photographer, P.M. (who wants privacy, but has fully cooperated with SOBEPS), was a twenty-year-old factory worker, who lived in the small community of Petit-Rechain, near Verviers. He was at home with his girlfriend on the night of either April 4 or 7, 1990 (he can’t pin down the exact date), when his girlfriend first noticed the object between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. as she took the dog to the courtyard. According to P.M.’s statement to Ferryn, he was alerted by his girlfriend, went outside, and “saw the object practically stationary towards the southwest, at about a forty-five-degree elevation. It consisted of three white round lights on a barely perceptible triangular surface. In the center there was a blinking spot of the same color, or maybe a bit more reddish than the other lights.” P.M. grabbed his camera, a Praktica model BX20 with a 55-200 mm zoom and a “Cokin” 1A 52 mm skylight filter. He shot the last two frames of a roll of 36-200 ASA Kodak color slide film. The UFO then moved slowly towards Petit-Rechain, until it was hidden by the roofs in the village. The entire episode took about five minutes.
The roll of film was sent by mail to a development house offering a special discount, and when P.M. received the slides, he noticed only frame #35 had captured the UFO; frame #36 was entirely black. Ferryn estimated that “the photo was probably taken with a focal distance between 55 and 200 mm, and with exposition time ranging from 1 to 2 seconds.” P.M. showed the photo to his factory coworkers (all of whom were later interviewed by Ferryn), but otherwise didn’t do anything to analyze or commercialize the picture. One of his coworkers knew a local photo-journalist from Verviers, Guy Mossay, who immediately saw the image’s potential value. P.M. sold the photo rights to Mossay for a small fee. Mossay then proceeded to copyright it with SOFAM (Belgium’s multimedia society for visual arts authors).
Skeptics have naturally pointed to the possibility of a hoax with profit motive. However, if that is the case, why did P.M. sell the rights to Mossay for a minor fee? Moreover, hoaxers never supply original slides or negatives for scientific analysis, as was done by P.M. Having checked his background, interviewed acquaintances, and so on, Ferryn noted that “the account of the main witnesses was coherent.” Gen. De Brouwer spent quite a bit of time explaining the details of this case during his MUFON lecture, saying of the witness that, “this guy is genuine, he is a guy who would not fake at all, I can assure you of that.” More importantly, the Petit-Rechain photo has been subjected to more scientific analysis than practically any other UFO photo in history.
When the Petit-Rechain photo is overexposed, the triangular outline of the object appears clearly.
The list of experts and institutions that have analyzed this photo include Prof. Acheroy of Belgium’s Royal Military Academy; Prof. François Louange, an expert in photo interpretation of satellite images for the French space agency, CNES; Dr. Richard Haines, a retired senior NASA scientist and respected UFO researcher; Belgium’s Royal Institute of Artistic Patrimony; and André Marion, a nuclear physicist with France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), who conducted an analysis in 2002 with improved technology. The technical details of these analyses are too numerous for this article, but suffice it to say that evidence of photographic trickery has never been found. Furthermore, of several efforts to duplicate the photo using a dark cardboard triangular model with holes and light bulbs, only one made by members of the Astrophysics Institute at Liege University somewhat resembled the Petit-Rechain photo. But the luminosity of the spots in the replica was uniform, while those in the original exhibited different shapes and spectral effects. The most recent CNRS study by Dr. Marion confirmed the previous analysis and found, as put by Gen. De Brouwer, a “halo around the craft with patterned structure,” which could have been caused by the object’s “propulsion system” of “magnetoplasma dynamic.” Marion also stated that “it would be extremely difficult to fake such a photograph.”
In the end, it’s almost impossible to guarantee the authenticity of a UFO image. There will always be a difference of opinions, but the verdict in the Petit-Rechain case appears highly favorable. Triangular UFOs were seen throughout Belgium during the early 1990s. Dozens of fuzzy videos and grainy photos were taken, but they were generally not impressive. Petit-Rechain was the great exception.
Note: Since the writing of this article, the photo turned out to be an admitted hoax.
NO EVIDENCE OF SECRET AIRCRAFT
Due to the high credibility of most witnesses in the Belgian wave and their descriptions of a silent, triangular craft being so precise, trying to explain the wave in terms of hoaxes, misidentified natural phenomena, or conventional aircraft seemed fruitless. Therefore, a number of skeptics and aviation journalists focused on trying to prove the hypothesis of secret U.S. aircraft flying over Belgium. A series of candidates were proposed, from the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) to secret airships, from the F-117A stealth fighter to some other revolutionary U.S. secret military aircraft such as the alleged TR-3A Black Manta. First, you have to ponder why the U.S. would conduct tests of their most-secret aircraft in such a highly populated area like Wallonia, which is not only a U.S. ally, but also headquarters of the NATO alliance. Gen. De Brouwer put it bluntly in a 1991 interview with the French magazine, OVNI Présence: “Why would the Americans conduct tests here in Europe, without permission and with the risk of having an accident that could create a diplomatic incident on a global scale? This doesn’t involve only Belgium, but NATO, where its concept itself could be put in question. I don’t believe that the Americans could take such a risk, it’s evident.”
Major General (Ret.) Wilfried De Brouwer, who was the Royal Belgian Air Force point man for the UFO wave, during his trip to Washington, DC to participate at the National Press Club event in 2007.
Credit: Bernard Thouanel
Guy Coeme and Leo Delcroix, the two Belgian Ministers of Defence during the wave, denied emphatically the theory that the UFOs were actually U.S. aircraft and based their denial on official inquiries with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels. In a 1993 letter to French researcher Renaud Marhic, Minister 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.” A declassified 1990 document from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) entitled, “Belgium and the UFO Issue,” supports Delcroix’s position. After describing the basic events of the wave that had transpired up to that point, the unnamed U.S. official wrote at the very end of this memo: “The [U.S. Air Force (USAF)] did confirm to the [Belgian Air Force] and Belgian [Ministry of Defence] that no USAF stealth aircraft were operating in the Ardennes area during the periods in question. This was released to the Belgian press and received wide dissemination.”
Thirty years have now passed since the Belgian UFO wave, and no new significant evidence has been produced to prove that the sightings were caused by secret military aircraft. The reported cases remain unexplained. It seems certain that something massive and technologically advanced flew over Belgian territory during the 1989-93 period. Why and who was behind it are questions that remain to be answered. A suitable conclusion, for now, is to repeat what Gen. De Brouwer wrote at the end of his famous postface to the SOBEPS’s first volume: “The day will come undoubtedly when the phenomenon will be observed with technological means of detection and collection that won’t leave a single doubt about its origin. This should lift a part of the veil that has covered the mystery for a long time. A mystery that continues thus present. But it exists, it is real, and that in itself is an important conclusion.”
The author (left) with SOBEPS’ chairman Lucien Clerebaut at the Society’s headquarters in Brussels in 1995. The map in the background shows the locations of sightings in Belgium.
Credit: Antonio Huneeus
A version of this article originally appeared in Issue #5 (December/January 2011) of Open Minds UFO Magazine. Back issues can be found here.
By Bob Spearing, Director of International Investigations
How many times over the decades did MUFON and other UFO Organizations receive a description concerning the underbelly of a Black triangle? The witnesses not only described the three round white, blue or orange lights on the triangular vertices and a central red twirling beacon dead on in the bottom’s ?center but also mentioned how the triangle underside was of a deep matte finish and often tubular orB intricate latices were visible on the craft’s bottom. Circuit boards or various other unusual descriptions suggesting a complex tapestry of possible mechanics were described on the craft bottoms.These examples are not one-offs but a serious pattern seen over and over again in dozens, if not more, triangle reports.
Surely, with such a consistent pattern concerning the architecture of unknown aerial vehicles in ourskies, serious investigators should consider this essential circumstantial evidence that these are real and recurring vehicles in our skies of similar manufacture.
Now we have yet another report from a witness who most likely has no knowledge or connection to prior similar reports! It is a disc now and not a triangle.
MUFON Report #122240 originates out of Alameda County, California on or around July 20, 1985 at 8 P.M. This is what the witness, a child at the time, saw:
The UFO Investigator has a lot to work with here. First, the intricacy of the witness’s drawing absolutely suggests he has seen something incredibly similar to other UFO witnesses. There is a definite pattern to tubular or pipe-like structures on the bottom of these UFOs.
Why tubular structures? Is their purpose connected to propulsion? Cooling Systems? Life support systems? Optical Illusion? Implanted thought? Or, does this lattice of tubes constitute a necessity in a?technology that we do not understand by a visiting agent, extraterrestrial or otherwise, that we have noframe of reference for.
A second excellent drawing by the witness has overtones of the Ezekiel’s vision when he sees a wheel within a wheel. It is also suggestive of the common disc sightings where multi-colored lights ar observed rotating in certain ways, sometimes clockwise and counter-clockwise at the same time.
Having established that the witness creates coherent drawings similar to many other cases, let us delv further into the narrative of the child witness in this historical case. It is a “high strangeness” account and may, at first, seem bizarre.
It reads: “2 years prior woke up to a 4-foot waitress wearing an old-fashioned waitress uniform walking towards me as I watched from my bed. I could hear all the sounds of what a busy old-fashioned diner would sound like (customers eating and mumbling, silverware clanging on plates.) This was all static, “snow” in which it appeared to me almost like a holograph ..waitress was walking in middle section of seated guests towards me holding a platter of food with both of her hands, she did not look directly at me but kind of through my {me}. Very detailed even though it was all in a static type media in which I observed it. I yelled out to my Mom if I could sleep with her and I heard her say “sure c-mon honey”..then I replied “but I don’t want to step on this lady”….then I blacked out and did not discuss the event until years later with my Mom….also had multiple visions soon after the UFO experience including a wheel within a wheel hovering and rotating in opposite directions over my childhood home, walking on a beach of dead whales and running from a crashing flood and climbing atop of Stonehenge for safety as the flood waters resided just before the tips of the larger stones”.
An analysis of this episode by a viable witness capable of drawing highly complex illustrations must make us consider the possibility that his story is true no matter how unbelievable. There is also much symbolism in the child’s vision. Was the waitress a “Screen Memory?” Additionally, sufficient reports of possible alien agents offering Contactees and experiencers food and drink is common and Jacque Valle often cites reports of Faire abductions back to the Middle Ages where food and drink are offered.
An especially intriguing part of the witness’s visions is that whales are seen dying along a beach. Coincidentally (perhaps not!!!), whales are currently washing ashore in New Jersey in droves due to their sonar being disrupted by windmill farms in the ocean near the coast. Was the witness having some sort of prescient event? Could it be within the realm of possibility that this witness saw into the future?
MUFON would love reaction to this “high strangeness” account! Please send your hypotheses to DOII@MUFON.COM and we may follow up on this case in a future newsletter article.
Never discount the unbelievable because you do not believe it! Investigate it first!
Most impressively there were 23 Landings, Hovering, or Takeoffs reported and 27 Entities observed. Number of abduction (ERT) cases were 33. Number of submitted Experiencer Questionnaires were 0.
The “space ball” found recently in Namibia, now in the possession of that country’s National Forensic Science Institute.
(Credit: AFP Photo)
The recent story of a mysterious “space ball” found in Namibia, Africa last November, which baffled for a while that country’s National Forensic Science Institute, has now been identified as a type of space debris known as a Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV), according to a story posted by Discovery News. The metallic ball discovered in a Namibian grassland is 1.1 meter in diameter and weighs 13 pounds.
One of the space spheres on display at the UFO Vision Museum in Victoria, Argentina; photo of George Adamski in the background.
(Credit: Open Minds Production)
I am, in fact, quite familiar with these objects since I published a short article about them as a sidebar to my feature story, “3 International UFO Crashes” in Open Minds magazine Issue 8 (June/July 2011). The gist of that article dealt with three mysterious incidents involving possible UFO crashes in Shag Harbour, Canada (1967), Tarija, Bolivia (1978) and Dalnegorsk, Russia (1986), all of which were officially investigated at the time and still remain unexplained.
The sidebar, “The Metallic Spheres – a case of mistaken identity,” however, did not remain unidentified, and was put there as an example of so-called space mysteries that can be successfully explained, although some ufologists prefer to keep the mystery alive and suggest they may be of alien origin. These metallic balls have been falling to different parts of the Earth—mostly in Africa and Latin America—for a number of years, causing sometimes a bit of stir in the local press. They are on exhibit in at least two museums in Argentina. Hoping to discourage further confusion with real UFO-related stuff, we post below my article from Open Minds magazine, adding several photos that were not used in the original print copy.
THE METALLIC SPHERES – A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
Two space spheres on display in the patio of the Firmat Museum in Santa Fe, Argentina.
(Credit: Open Minds Production)
Some of the Project Moon Dust documents declassified by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) include reports of mysterious metallic spheres found scattered in many countries around the world like Bolivia, Chad, and New Zealand. Other similar cases not in the DIA documents were reported in Argentina and Mexico. Usually these cases were readily identified as some kind of space junk, but occasionally they were treated as fragments from crashed UFOs. A couple of these spheres are even on display at the “Visión OVNI” (UFO Vision) Museum in Victoria in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. Among the Mexican cases, one was found in Chiapas in 1996, two in Tamaulipas in 1994 and 1996, and another obtained by famous TV journalist Jaime Maussán in 2008, all of which were claimed as possibly UFO-related fragments. Yet there can be little doubt that all these “space balls” are mundane parts of the Russian or American space programs and not real UFO artifacts.
Here is a representative Moon Dust memo from the Republic of Chad in Africa, dated October 10, 1970:
This report forwards photographs of object believed to come under Project ‘MOON DUST’. The object was seen falling in an area 30 kms N.E. of LAI (0924N-1618E) on 1 August 1970. It produced three loud explosions on landing and was said to have burned for five days. The sphere weighs 30 pounds and has a circumference of four feet. A second object was found in the same general area. It however, resembles an automobile shaft. Photographs of this object are forwarded.
A longer Moon Dust document, dated August 17, 1979, concerns “an unidentified object having been found on a farm near Santa Cruz” in Bolivia, described as “about three times the size of a basketball.” The document quoted the director of the Air Force Academy, Col. Ariel Coca, as stating, “The sphere is made of special light alloy but very resistant, possibly a fuel tank or a part of a satellite! The object does not have any signs or marks that could identify its origin nor the country to which it belongs.”
Two views of the space sphere that fell in Mexico in 2008, now in the possession of Jaime Maussán. Notice the extensive damage inflicted due to reentry.
(Credit: Open Minds Production)
The argument in favor of the extraterrestrial origin of these spheres made by some ufologists in Mexico and Argentina is that they are extremely hard, almost impossible to burn or cut.
Cover of the Mexican magazine Contacto Ovni in the 1990s with the headline, 'The Mystery of the Spheres.'
(Credit: Contacto Ovni)
But this is what you would expect of a fuel tank for a spacecraft, designed to be ejected for earth reentry once the fuel is used; it has to be made of metals able to withstand the space launch or the satellite or spacecraft could be in danger. Mexican engineer Luis Ruiz Noguez, a well-known UFO skeptic, explained that the alloy, which is composed of titanium, vanadium, and aluminum, shown in the 1994 and 1996 Mexican spheres “is chiefly utilized in the manufacture of fuel tanks for artificial satellites due to their high resistance to corrosion and temperature.” While the spheres at Argentina’s Visión OVNI Museum are exhibited as true UFO artifacts, the local Firmat Museum in Santa Fe, Argentina has a couple of similar spheres that the Russian space program has acknowledged as part of a Russian space probe.
If you still have any doubt about the provenance of these objects, checkout Paul Maley’s Space Debris website, to see images of a number of these “space balls” of varying sizes and conditions found around the world. These spheres provide a useful cautionary tale in learning how to distinguish prosaic man-made space objects from true unknown devices. There is a good possibility that many so-called UFO crashes have a terrestrial origin, but others are still enigmatic and so far unexplained.
In what US prosecutors have called the biggest military hack of all time, Scottish hacker Gary McKinnon says it was all done in an effort to end secrecy regarding UFOs and free energy technology. McKinnon has been accused of hacking into computer systems belonging to NASA, the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Department of Defense, and the U.S. Air Force. He is fighting extradition to the United States to be held on trial. If extradited, McKinnon faces spending the rest of his life in prison, but were his efforts in vain or did he really find something?
In all of his interviews, McKinnon talks about two UFO related finds. He told the Guardian newspaper that he thought what he found was so important that he tried to barter with the government. When first caught he was offered the chance to take a plea bargain and get a three to four year sentence. He turned the offer down to get a lesser sentence and threatened to release everything he found if they didn’t give him a better deal. Unfortunately for McKinnon, the U.S. government wasn’t too worried about his revelations. Now he faces spending a 70 year sentence in a US prison.
Lucy Clarke, McKinnon’s girlfriend, is comforted at a protest.
(credit: Cate Gillon/Getty Images Europe)
McKinnon was inspired by physician Dr. Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project. Greer had brought together a number of witnesses to testify in front of the Washington National Press Club that they had knowledge of the existence of Extraterrestrial visitation and that it was being hidden from the public. One of the witnesses said they knew that pictures from space were being altered at NASA’s Johnson’s space center; UFOs were allegedly being taken out of pictures.
McKinnon hacked into Johnson’s systems and said he found a high definition picture of a large cigar shaped object over the northern hemisphere. He said that he was so shocked by the picture that he didn’t think to immediately save it. He also said that the file size was so large that is was difficult to view it on his computer. Eventually his connection was lost and so was the picture.
The most shocking find to McKinnon, the one he thought would be his ace in the hole negotiating with the US.. government, was what he found hacking into the systems of U.S. Space Command. McKinnon says he found a log that listed non-terrestrial officers. He doesn’t believe that these were aliens, but he believes this to be evidence that the U.S. military has a secret battalion in space. Some of these logs were ship to ship transfers, but he says he was usually smoking pot while he hacked, so that prevented him from remembering the names of the ships. McKinnon told the Gaurdian: “I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. Not good for the intellect.”
There are rumors that he has talked about the names of two of the ships he saw on the transfer logs, the names of the ships allegedly being the USSS LeMay and the USSS Hillenkoetter. Typically Navy ship names just have two S’, an acronym for United States Ship, however there are three S’ here, presumably standing for United States Space Ship. The names of the ships are also significant.
General Curtis LeMay
(credit: USAF)
General Curtis LeMay was friends with retired Air Force Reserve Major General and former U.S. Senator from Arizona, Barry Goldwater. Goldwater believed there was a UFO cover-up deep within the government, and suspected that his friend LeMay knew about it. There were rumors that there was UFO evidence being held in a secret room at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base called the blue room. Goldwater told the media several times that when he asked LeMay about this room, LeMay got upset and told him, “Not only can’t you get into it but don’t you ever mention it to me again.” Open Minds magazine will have an article going more into depth on Goldwater in the second issue.
The second ship’s namesake, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, was the first director of the CIA, and was also a member of a UFO research organization, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). In 1960, the New York Times reported that Hillenkoetter had sent a letter to Congress that included this statement: “Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”
Admiral Hillenkoetter
(credit: USN)
Although Hillenkoetter fought for the end of UFO secrecy, he eventually stopped commenting on the matter. Conspiracists also find Hillenkoetter intriguing because his name appears in debunked alleged secret documents that were leaked to UFO researchers. They list Hillenkoetter as a member of the infamous Majestic 12 group, an organization rumored to have been made up of high ranking military officers and civilians that was supposedly created by President Truman to initially manage the UFO issue.
However, the fact that McKinnon actually released names of these ships is also a just a rumor, thus far there are no sources for this claim.
So there we have it, the UFO picture that McKinnon saw and the ship rosters were all he had, and unfortunately for him, they were not enough to scare the government into going easy on him. Instead he has been fighting a long multi-year battle to keep from being extradited to the US, a fight that he is losing. So far every British court he has appealed to has denied his stay.
The US government is really throwing the book at him, alleging that he took down military computers making the U.S. vulnerable soon after 911. McKinnon denies those claims, and says that he was able to observe many hackers from around the world accessing the networks he was on at the same time he was on them. Many believe that McKinnon may just be a scapegoat.
UPDATE
In 2012, U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May announced she would not extradite McKinnon to the U.S. saying “she had to consider his human rights.”
“The home secretary told MPs there was no doubt Mr McKinnon was “seriously ill” and the extradition warrant against him should be withdrawn,” according to the BBC.
Soon after, it was also determined he would not face trial in the U.K. According to an article in the Guardian, “A joint statement from Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, and Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, cited the huge difficulties of charging him in the UK, and said the chances of conviction would be poor.”
By Bob Spearing, Director of International Investigations
32 Years ago, in a remote hilly area of Scotland in 1990 called Calvine, two witnesses saw and photographed a large diamond shaped object with a military plane in the lower right corner. They took 6,photos. The photos were sent to a British newspaper but they were never published as the British Ministry of Defense confiscated the photos. Photostatted facsimiles of one photo have made the rounds for decades while the MOD denied all of the photos’ existence. Why? Here is the facsimile going around UFO circles for 3 decades followed by the actual photo released this past week.
This week one actual photo has been released due to a concerted effort by Dr. David Clarke, a scientist and UFO researcher in Britain. The photo released says it is the property of Sheffield Hallam University.
The photo has gone viral and is currently making its rounds about the internet. The other 5 photos have yet to surface and it is doubtful the MOD will ever release them.
The one released is an extraordinary photo but exactly what it shows is inconclusive. It is an impressive diamond and seems to dwarf the plane in the photograph. It is believed to be a military plane that is either escorting the object or chasing it.
Additionally, a concerted effort has now been mounted by the British media to identify the two
anonymous hikers that took the half dozen series of analog photos.
The object has been estimated to be as long as 100 feet in diameter. The object has also been theorized to be the American military stealth aircraft built by Boeing and known as the Bird of Prey. Only one was built in 1996 and it is on display today in a museum. Could it have been a top-secret project 6 years prior in 1990 undergoing testing? Possible yes but likely? Here are two photos of Boeing’s Bird of Prey. What do you think?
The most important questions to ask are why find and release the photo now after 32 years of silence?
Is it military? Is it Extraterrestrial? Is it real? Was it planned? Is it legitimate?
It is, nonetheless, the most famous and intriguing photo ever to come out of the United Kingdom.
Super Interesting Plane and Drone Designs, Courtesy of our Government This Month!
Super Interesting Plane and Drone Designs, Courtesy of our Government This Month!
By Bob Spearing
Tim Aines is the Chief Field Investigator in Illinois under the State Director, Sam Maranto. Illinois has a great team of people including great photo analysts like Greg Cisko. Tim Aines is also a retired military intelligence officer and MUFON certainly needs to bring individuals like Tim to the forefront due to their incredible knowledge base!
Tim has provided me with several spectacular illustrations of current government projects that may be accounting for numerous UFO sightings occurring across the United States in our CMS Database currently!
Per Tim, “On November 8th, the US Air Force released a rah-rah public relations video called “Heritage Today – ISR and Innovation” and in it they embedded a few teaser shots that only lasted a few seconds of two new aircraft, both of which are presumed to be flying now.
The first one is familiar looking.
It is called the RQ-180, or the Great White Bat, or also the Shikaka. It’s a spy drone that has already been seen over California and the Philippines.
The second one is presumed to be the new hypersonic space plane.
Hypersonic means a minimum of 5 times faster than sound, or 3,800 mph plus. It is called the SR-72 and is a drone that replaces the legendary SR-71 Blackbird seen below!
Here is a quick clip of the Air Force’s new drone the SR-72.
Finally, this is Otto Aviation’s new aircraft called the Celera 500L. It’s currently flying all around the country right now doing FAA flight testing at various airports.
Guess what it looks like from a distance and how many CMS reports it will generate. Your first 2 guesses don’t count… 😊 Thank you Tim!
SPEAKER PANELS - EXPERIENCER WORKSHOPS - FIELD INVESTIGATOR HANDS ON TRAINING - KEYNOTE BANQUET - SCREENING OF THE 'PHOENIX LIGHTS' DOCUMENTARY WITH DR. LYNNE KITEI AND HER GUESTS (Q&A) - MUFON CASES OF INTEREST - SPECIAL TOUR/EVENT (TBA) - FREE UFO MOVIE MARATHON - VENDORS AND ARTISTS - MEET OUR SPEAKERS ........... AND HAVE FUN!
EVERYONE IS WELCOME, MUFON MEMBERS RECEIVE DISCOUNT ON THEIR TICKETS
MUFON SADDENED BY THE PASSING OF DR. R. LEO SPRINKLE
MUFON SADDENED BY THE PASSING OF DR. R. LEO SPRINKLE
Well known UFO researcher Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle died this past week ( 22 november 2021) . Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle, known in the UFO community as a hardworking psychologist interested in UFOs, particularly alien abduction and who organized contactee conferences each year since 1980, has died at 91.
He was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming. MUFON joins the UFOlogy Community in mourning his passing. The man was not only brilliant but was a friend to many many experiencers throughout the years.
Dr. Sprinkle was very close to MUFON’s Colorado State Director Katie Griboski who wrote an entire book about the correspondences Dr. Sprinkle received over decades from the people he helped.
For those of you unfamiliar with him, Katie has allowed us to post this short biography from her book Letters of Love and Light.
Psychologist, hypnotherapist, and UFO contactee researcher R. Leo Sprinkle was born in 1930 in Rocky Ford, Colorado. As a young man he joined the United States Army, serving two years as a corporal in 194th Field Artillery Battalion in Wertheim, Germany.
He then returned to the United States, and began his studies at the University of Colorado, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, then a Master’s of Personnel Service in Counseling. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling and Guidance at the University of Missouri in 1961.
In 1964, after serving as Director of the Counseling Center at the University of North Dakota, he became Associate Professor of Guidance Education at the University of Wyoming. Leo served as Counselor and Associate Professor of Psychology there from 1967 till his retirement in 1989.
Leo’s many published writings have included his book Soul Samples (1999, Granite Publishing) and his approximately 50 articles published in academic and UFO journals. These have focused mainly on UFO research, extrasensory perception, hypnosis, reincarnation, spiritual growth, and counseling theory and practice.
Not long into his career, Leo became increasingly known in UFO circles as a researcher of contactee experiences, offering an open mind and a sympathetic ear for those needing to speak of their experiences. A nonbeliever for many years, Leo migrated, as he puts it, from “scoffer” to “skeptic” after experiencing a UFO sighting himself in 1949. A second sighting with his wife in 1956 then moved him from “skeptic” to “unwilling believer.”
By the mid 1960s, Leo was involved in trailblazing research and investigation of UFO abductions. As psychology professor and therapist, over the decades he has performed more than 500 hypnotic regressions of possible contactees and abductees. Viewed as an authority in the UFO field, he has spoken on this topic on national television and at international conferences.
Among the many cases Leo has investigated have been some of the most extraordinary and well-known UFO incidents to have occurred since 1930.
In 1964, using a set of standard tests, Leo’s breakthrough research included the first psychological study of hundreds of individuals who had reported sighting or experiencing a UFO. He concluded from this that most UFO witnesses operate within the normal psychological range……..
“My approach is to minimize the tendency to ‘explain’ (or explain away) the reality of psychic experiences,” Leo has said, “and to emphasize the willingness to explore the personal meaning of these human experiences of spiritual emergence.”
In 1980, Leo founded the University of Wyoming’s annual summer Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation as a meeting place for hundreds of UFO contactees, abductees, and other experiencers seeking affirmation and support.
In 1988, Leo published the PACTS model of abductee/contactee experience. Based on 24 years of study, it marked out five stages of experience. Briefly, these were: Preparation (family and cultural experiences of ESP and/or spiritual contacts, including childhood visitations by Spiritual Beings (SBs), Abduction (UFO sightings and/or abduction experiences inducted or initiated, involuntarily, by SBs), Contact (adult visitations inducted or initiated voluntarily by SBs), Training (instruction for a mission or task), and Service (cooperation with SBs—channeling verbal or written information from them, providing healing, instruction, or assistance to others).
There is also the accomplishment which this book celebrates: Leo’s active correspondence over 40 years, in supportive yet academically responsible ways, with UFO and ET experiencers all over the world.
Over the years, as a result of his research, Leo has concluded….that UFO activity is a part of an incoming wave of human consciousness—a shift into viewing ourselves not only as “planetary persons,” but as “cosmic citizens.”
Thank you Dr. Sprinkle. You will be greatly missed!
UNITED STATES 479 UK 33 CANADA 23 FRANCE 21 AUSTRALIA 8 GERMANY 4 SPAIN 3 MEXICO 3 IRAN 3 SOUTH AFRICA 3 GREECE 2 AFGHANISTAN 1 CHILE 1 IRAQ 1 VIRGIN ISLANDS,BRITISH 1 BOLIVIA 1 GUATEMALA 1 SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO 1 ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 1 COSTA RICA 1 ISRAEL 1 BELGIUM 1 PAKISTAN 1 ANTARCTICA 1 ARGENTINA 1 DENMARK 1 KAZAKHSTAN 1 BELIZE 1 ROMANIA 1
1971 was a banner year for classic UFO Cases throughout the world. Perhaps two of the most intriguing investigated that year had what we would consider trace evidence.
First, let's look at the September 4th, 1971 Lago De Cote, Costa Rica case. One of the most analyzed UFO photographs ever was taken by a Costa Rican Government plane whose crew were doing an aerial mapping mission. Since these were days long before digital photography the negative went through much testing to verify if what was on it was real, a hoax or a blemish. The flight crew and mapping engineers were considered above reproach and no hoax was suspected. However, the object in the photo was only seen later. No one on the plane observed anything below them with their own eyes.
Richard Haines and Jacques Vallee analyzed the photo in The Journal of Scientific Exploration, Volume #3, Issue number #2 and concluded "In summary, our analyses have suggested that an unidentified, opaque, aerial object was captured on film at a maximum distance of 10,000 feet. There are no visible means of lift or propulsion and no surface markings other than dark regions that appear to be nonrandom. There is no indication that the image is the product of a double exposure or a deliberate fabrication". Richard Hall of NICAP’s analysis was as follows: Very high reliability, unquestionably an authentic photograph. The lack of a visual sighting or any observed or recorded extraordinary performances reduces the "strangeness" level. Yet, the evidentiary data is strong and the investigation thorough, resulting in a well-documented and well-investigated anomaly. Ray Stanford, another longtime UFO researcher most famous for his analysis of the April 1964 Socorro New Mexico egg shaped UFO encounter of Officer Lonnie Zamora provided his take next and was at odds with his fellow contemporaries as to what was seen. He considered it may have been the bulb reflector in a common flashlight. See his analysis below.
To this day there is great debate about what was seen. Entire internet forums are dedicated to attempting to debunk the photo outright or to suggesting various types of camera artifacts such as emulsion blemishes.
Our second case took place in Delphos, Kansas on November 16, 1971 when a sixteen-year-old named Ronald Johnson saw a mushroom shape descending on the farm where he was tending sheep with his dog.
Ronald came within 25 feet of the object which was covered in multi-colored lights. The object was reported to be nine feet wide and ten feet high. Ron ran to get his parents and when they returned, the object was gone but a glowing ring was found in the dirt where the object was seen hovering.
The case has several interesting facets including possible missing time for Ron, the farm animals being disturbed at the time of the sighting and for weeks afterwards but most of all was the physical effect suffered by Ron’s mom after touching the glowing material. Her fingers became numb for days and where she wiped off the dust on her leg that area of skin became numb also. Ted Phillips initially investigated with the cooperation of the Delphos police and the story eventually appeared in the September 1985 MUFON Journal. Again, Jacques Vallee got involved and tested the soil sample finding Actinomycetes which are intermediate organisms between bacteria and fungus according to Vallee. So, was it merely the result of a natural phenomenon of fungus growth called Fairy Rings? Even noted debunker Phillip Klass got involved claiming the ring was caused by sheep urine. Phyllis Budinger, a well-known Ohio chemist who has helped MUFON on innumerable trace evidence cases, tested the samples and found Oxalic Acid which could have been the result of exhaust from low level ionization or even a combustion engine. The National Inquirer even convened a panel of well-known UFO researchers to examine the best cases of the time with a $5,000 prize on the line. The Delphos Case and Ron Johnson’s family won the prize!
Photo of the National Inquirer panel from 1975. From left: Dr. Leo Sprinkle, Dr. Frank Salisbury, Dr. James Harder, Dr. Robert Creegan, Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Mr. Jim Lorenzo of APRO. Photo credit: APRO
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 75 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
