Belgium UFO information

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Date Prepared:  April 17, 1991

Contributed by: Antonio Huneeus

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Article as it appeared in UFO Universe, June/July 1991.

BREAKING DOWN "THE WALL" OF UFO SILENCE

FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS, ALMOST THE ENTIRE EUROPEAN CONTINENT HAS

BEEN  PLAGUED BY A WAVE OF UFO SIGHTINGS UNSURPASSED IN  HISTORY,

PERHAPS  MOST  PUZZLING  HAVE BEEN THOSE OF  A  GIGANTIC  "FLYING

PLATFORM" SIGHTED NEAR THE GERMAN BORDER IN BELGIUM.

By Antonio Huneeus

(c)  1991  by  A. Huneeus. All  Rights  Reserved  Reprinted  with

permission   to  ParaNet(sm)  Information  Service   No   further

reproduction  is  allowed  without written  permission  from  the

author.

In  a totally unprecedented move in the history of  ufology,  the

Belgian   Air  Force  and  government  has  not  only   carefully

documented  the  great  UFO wave over Wallonia,  but  shared  its

results  with  civilian investigators and the public,  in  effect

literally  breaking  down "The Wall" of UFO  Silence  that  still

stands in the western world.

        * * *

  For  the past year, citizens in the French-speaking  region  of

Wallonia  in Belgium have experienced an extraordinary UFO  wave.

Thousands  of witnesses, including dozens of gendarmes  (national

police)  and  officers of the Belgian Air Force,  have  described

triangular-shaped vehicles flying slowly over rooftops, hovering,

shooting  searchlights and performing incredible  maneuvers.  The

objects  have been captured on some 25 videotapes and tracked  on

both ground and airborne radar by the military.

  Few, if any, will doubt that the triangular UFOs have been seen

all  over Wallonia since November of 1989. According to  a  front

page  story in The Wall Street Journal published on  October  10,

1990   and  entitled  "Belgium  Scientists  Seriously  Pursue   A

Triangular UFO," "since the rash of sightings here began almost a

year  ago,  more than ]2,600 have been reported of  a  triangular

object  with  three huge lights hovering in the  night  sky  over

Wallonia."  The  question that some are asking is  whether  these

objects  could  be explained by the testing of a new  top  secret

military  aircraft. Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs), AWACS,  the

F-117 Stealth Fighter, and a modified version of the B-2  Stealth

Bomber, are some of the options that have been suggested.

  Besides  the large amount of well documented data  gathered  by

the  Gendarmerie, the Air Force and civilian scientists from  the

Belgian  Society for the Study of Space Phenomena  (SOBEPS),  the

Belgian Map has broken another record. For the first time ever in

the  controversial  history of UFOs anywhere in  the  world,  the

Belgian  Minister of Defense, Guy Coeme, has authorized  the  Air

Force  to fully cooperate with SOBEPS, forwarding their  reports,

and  even  putting at their disposal a  Hawker  Sideley  aircraft

equipped  with  infrared  cameras  and  sophisticated  electronic

sensors.

 As the well known French physicist, Jean Pierre Petit, explained

to  Paris  Match magazine, "we are living in a time that  is  the

beginning  of  a  period  of  openness.  First  the  Berlin  Wall

crumbled,  now  the  wall  of  silence  about  UFOs  is  falling.

Concerning the UFOs, we are entering a phase completely different

from the earlier ones. It is the end of commercialism and fakery.

The  true  scientists are finally making their  appearance."  Dr.

Petit  is  a senior physicist and director of research  with  the

National Center for Scientific Research of France. An  iconoclast

and a world class expert on magnetohydrodynamcs (MHD), Dr.  Petit

has  also conducted some rather interesting UFO research  of  his

own,  publishing recently his results in the book,  INVESTIGATION

OF UFOS.

     Unlike  many other UFO groups around the world,  the  SOBEPS

has  a  team of respected scientists, including  Leon  Brenig,  a

nonlinear  dynamics theorist at the Free University in  Brussels,

and  Professor  August  Meessen, a physicist  from  the  Catholic

University at Louvain. Among the numerous UFO witnesses, in fact,

were  Lucien  Clerebaut,  Secretary General  of  SOBEPS,  Patrick

Ferryn, a film producer and founding member, and Jose  Fernandez,

another SOBEPS investigator. "Here is an opportunity where we can

apply the scientific method," remarked Professor Brenig.

   SOBEPS  files  show that the first sightings occurred  on  the

night  of  November  7,  1989, when  two  gendarmes  from  Esneux

observed a silent huge craft "with two very powerful white lights

directed  downwards and 'a sort of green and red  garland.'"  The

flap,  however, gained momentum and notoriety on the  evening  of

November 29 when 41 witnesses, including six gendarmes,  observed

the huge triangle - sometimes referred as "a stationary  platform

"  - in Eupen, Verviers, and several other locations in  Wallonia

near the border with Germany. As the press speculated with  AWACS

and Stealth aircraft on the following days, the Defense  Minister

Guy  Coeme dismissed these rumors, stating that  "all  hypotheses

involving the presence of military aircraft in our air space  are

definitely to be ruled out. "

It is perhaps because the objects are so far unidentified,   that

the  Belgian  Air Force has undertaken the task  of  chasing  and

investigating  the  intruders. As Col. Wilfried de  Brouwer,  the

Chief of Operations of the Belgian Air Force who is  coordinating

the  UFO  investigation,  told  The  Wall  Street  Journal,  "Our

approach  is that it's our job to see what's going  on."  Indeed,

the  UFO flap climaxed on the night of March 30-31 of 1990,  when

unknown targets were tracked by two radar installations. The  one

at  Glons,  located southeast of Brussels, belongs  to  the  NATO

defense group - NATO Headquarters is in Brussels - while that  at

Semmerzake,  west  of Brussels, is in charge of  controlling  all

military and civilian traffic in the entire Belgian territory. At

that  point, the master-controller at Glons ordered the  scramble

of  two  F-16 interceptors, which also locked the  UFO  on  their

onboard radars.

  We  have  obtained,  courtesy  of  French  researcher  Jean-Luc

Rivera, a copy of the complete report of this incident, which was

prepared  by  Air Force Major P. Lambrechts, from the  Air  Force

General Staff in Brussels, and which was forwarded to the  SOBEPS

following  the instructions of full cooperation with that  group.

The  "Report Concerning the Observation of UFOs During the  Night

of  March  30  to 31, 1990," includes a full  chronology  of  the

events, as well as a thick dossier of enclosures with eyewitness'

descriptions  from  several  gendarmes  and  maps  of  where  the

sightings took place.

  Major  P.  Lambrechts  explains at  the  inception  that,  "the

observations  both visual and by radar were of such nature,  that

it  was decided to order the scramble of two F-16  aircraft  with

the  goal of identifying these UFOs." The report  also  indicates

that  "the  presence or testing of B2 or F117  (Stealth  Bomber),

RPVs  (Remotely Piloted Vehicles), ULMs (Ultra  Light  Motorized)

and AWACS at the moment of these events in the Belgian  airspace,

can be excluded. "

  According  to the Chronology, the Sequence of events  began  at

22.50  hours, when the "master controller at Glons "  received  a

telephone call from gendarme Renquin, who reported he was  seeing

from  his house in Ramillies, "three unusual lights. . .  forming

an  equilateral triangle, and with changing colors of red,  green

and  yellow." At 23.05, the Gendarmerie at Wavre sent  a  patrol,

which  confirmed the observation. At 23.15, Renquin called  again

to inform that he was seeing a new set of three lights, while the

radar screens at Glons detected " an unidentified contact  moving

at  a  speed of around 25 knots." (A knot is  equivalent  to  one

nautical mile - 6,080 feet - per hour. )

  For  the  next two and a half hours, an  increasing  number  of

gendarmes  and other witnesses continued to observe  the  strange

maneuvers  of  up  to  three sets of  triangular  lights  in  the

outskirts  of  Brussels.  By 23.49 hours, the  radar  screens  at

Semmerzake confirmed the targets and the order to scramble two F-

16s  was given at 23.56 hours, taking off at 00.05 on  March  31.

According  to the report, "the aircraft had brief radar  contacts

on  several occasions." However, each time that "the pilots  were

able  to secure a lock on one of the targets for a  few  seconds,

this  resulted each time in a drastic change in the  behavior  of

the UFOs."

  During  the first lock on at 00.13, continues the report,  "the

speed of the target changed in a minimum of time from 150 to  970

knots  and  from 9,000 to 5,000 feet, returning  then  to  11,000

feet,  in  order to change again to close to ground  level;  this

resulted  in a 'break lock' in a few seconds and the pilots  lost

the radar contact." In another lock on at 00.30 hours, the "break

lock" was achieved by what the report calls "a jamming signal  on

the screen."

  Col. de Brouwer explained to Paris Match reporter Marie-Therese

de Brosses, that the change of velocity from 280 KPM to 1,800 KPH

while descending from 3,000 meters to 1,000 meters in one second,

was  a  fantastic acceleration equivalent to 40  Gs.  This  would

exclude  any human pilot onboard the UFO, since humans  can  only

withstand  8 Gs. (A "G " is a unit of acceleration equivalent  to

the  gravitational pull of the earth, 9.81 m/sec/sec.)  When  the

UFO  approached the ground level, continued Col. de Brouwer,  "it

was out of the question for the F-16 to catch up with the  object

at  this  low altitude, where the density of the air  limits  the

speed  to  1,300 KMP. Above that speed, the  temperature  in  the

compressors of the jet turbines would cause the engines to burst.

There  was a logic behind the motions of the object,"  added  the

Colonel.

In any case, the cat and mouse game went on until shortly after 1

am,  when the F-16s were ordered to return to their base. On  the

ground, however, Captain Pinson and other gendarmes continued  to

observe "four white luminous spots forming a square" until around

1.30,  when  "the four UFOs lost their luminosity and  seemed  to

disappear  in  four  different  directions."  Significantly,  the

weather conditions on that night were very clear, allowing ground

witnesses  to  observe  the objects in detail,  as  well  as  the

pursuit  by the F-16s. The pilots, however, did not  observe  the

objects visually.

  Major  Lambrechts  finally  excludes a  number  of  alternative

hypotheses  for the UFOs, such as "optical  illusions,  confusion

with   planets  or  other  meteorological  phenomena...   weather

balloons.  .  .  or meteorological inversions.  .  .  holographic

projections,"  etc. More importantly, he writes that "the  speeds

measured  at  he moment of the change of altitudes,  exclude  the

hypothesis  that  the  UFOs  observed  could  be  confused   with

aircraft. " Still more puzzling was the fact that, "despite  that

on  several  occasions high speeds above the speed of  the  sound

barrier  were measured, the shock wave was never observed.  Here,

no  explanation can be given." The French physicist  Jean  Pierre

Petit concurred: "In reality," he told Paris Match, "there is  no

machine  made  by man, either an airplane or a missile,  that  is

capable of such performance. Specifically, flying at the speed of

sound without making a sonic boom."

  Although  the Belgian military authorities have  insisted  that

the  UFOs  in Wallonia are no secret aircraft,  the  similarities

between the triangular craft seen in Belgium with the  boomerang-

shaped objects reported throughout the last decade in the  Hudson

Valley  in  New York and Western Connecticut, as  well  as  other

triangular UFOs observed in Wytheville, Virginia, Fyffe, Alabama,

and Puerto Rico, among other places, have led some researchers to

suggest  that  the technology behind all  these  observations  is

terrestrial and not extraterrestrial.

  The similarity between the Belgian and Hudson Valley flaps  was

noted  by SOBEPS investigator Patrick Ferryn. Commenting  on  the

book  Night  Siege  by the late  Dr.  Allen  Hynek,  investigator

Phillip  Imbrogno  and reporter Bob Pratt, which  documented  the

Hudson  Valley  cases,  Ferryn wrote that "changing  only  a  few

words,  exactly the same could be written to give an  account  of

the position of affairs here! [in Belgium] The same goes for many

entire pages and excerpts elsewhere in the book."

  While  nobody doubts that people have been seeing something  in

both  upstate New York and Wallonia in Belgium, the big  question

is  whether  these sightings are caused by true UFOs or  by  some

kind  of  new revolutionary secret  military  aircraft.  Foremost

among  the  proponents  of  the  secret  weapon  theory  is  Tony

Gonsalves,  a researcher from East Providence, Rhode Island,  who

served  as a jet mechanic and plane captain for the U.S. Navy  on

three aircraft carriers between 1959 and 1963.

  In  a  number  of papers written during  the  last  two  years,

Gonsalves  has developed his theory of "The American made UFO"  -

that the boomerangs of Westchester and Duchess counties, as  well

as the triangular UFOs of Belgium, Virginia and Puerto Rico,  are

actually  a  modified covert version of the B-2  Stealth  Bomber.

Gonsalves  believes this craft has been fully  operational  since

the early 80s, while the official B-2 bomber that was unveiled in

1988  is a "decoy" to deceive the American public, the media  and

the  Congress.  Furthermore,  Tony  Gonsalves  and  a  few  other

ufologists   speculate  that  this  secret  aircraft   may   even

incorporate  some  alien  technology obtained  from  UFO  crashes

decades ago.

  Gonsalves' theory seemed to gain some credibility when Aviation

Week & Space Technology magazine reported in its October 1,  1990

edition that, "large, triangular wing-Shaped aircraft" are indeed

being tested out of the Nellis Air Force range in Nevada and  the

Tehachapi  Mountains  near Edwards AFB in  California.  The  well

known aerospace magazine mentioned several sightings by engineers

of "triangular-shaped aircraft, " possibly prototypes for the  A-

12,  the  Navy's  new Stealth attack plane, and  one  or  several

versions for reconnaissance aircraft cloaked under the top secret

code  of  Aurora, to replace the old Lockheed  SR-71  "Blackbird"

which was recently mothballed. Aviation Week (sometimes  referred

by the nickname of "Aviation Leak") also quoted Air Force sources

who "acknowledged that diamond and triangular-shaped vehicles are

'the  trend  now,'" as well as unconfirmed reports that  some  of

these aircraft "were designed to operate at speeds around Mach 10

or higher."

  Because  he  worked  for  over 30 years  as  senior  editor  of

Aviation Week, where he is still a contributing editor, we sought

the  opinion  of  well known UFO debunker  Phillip  Klass  as  to

whether there could be any validity to explain the Hudson  Valley

and  Belgian  flaps  with Secret military  aircraft,  Stealth  or

otherwise.  "In  my  opinion  the  answer  is  absolutely   not,"

responded  Klass,  adding  that  only  those  sightings  "in  the

vicinity  of Nellis Air Force Base" in Nevada could be caused  by

military  aircraft  tests.  "If  there were a  secret  airplane,"

continued Klass, "for goodness' sake, the last place in the world

you'd want to fly it is in Duchess County, where people have been

alerted to look for objects."

  Although  they  certainly disagree on the final  cause  of  the

sightings,  Klass  and  Phillip  Imbrogno  seem  to  be  in  full

agreement  in their rejection of Tony Gonsalves' Stealth  theory.

"l  can't  see the government testing a top secret device  in  an

area like this, " said Imbrogno. "Number one, what if they have a

problem,  what  if they crash?" Imbrogno said he  had  considered

this  possibility  when  he  first  looked  into  the   boomerang

sightings,  but  that "I am convinced right now that  the  Hudson

Valley UFO is not an aircraft, Stealth or otherwise. Number  two,

I  am  not totally convinced that it's  from  outerspace.  Number

three, I don't know what the hell it is."

   Meanwhile, sightings continue to pile up in Europe. The latest

case  before we go to press was reported in early November,  when

"mystery shapes in the sky, variously described as orange  balls,

triangles and points of light," were reported in France, Belgium,

Germany,  Switzerland and Italy, according to a  newswire  report

from  the Reuter's news agency. Police phone lines  were  flooded

across  the  continent  with  calls  about  unidentified   flying

objects.  Experts in Munich speculated the sightings  could  have

been  triggered  by the explosion of a meteorite.  However,  this

explanation  could  hardly  satisfy  the  familiar  sightings  in

Belgium,  where  "dozens of people reported a  triangular  object

with   three  lights  flying  slowly  and  soundlessly   to   the

southwest," according to the Reuter report.

  The Belgian Air Force was studying once again the case, and  so

was France's Service for the Investigation of Re-entry  Phenomena

(SEPRA), which is attached to the French National Space Agency in

Toulouse  and was formerly known as GEPAN. One Air  France  pilot

told  a  radio  interviewer: "We were on a  flight  to  Barcelona

(Spain) at about 33,000 feet at about 7 pm when we first saw  the

shape. It couldn't have been a satellite because it was there for

three or four minutes."

  If the sightings in Belgium and elsewhere turn out to be secret

aircraft,  the mystery will become pubic sooner or later, but  if

they are indeed caused by true UFOs, then we may be debating them

for  a long time to come. Perhaps a summary of the whole  Belgian

flap  and  its  meaning was best expressed  by  SOBEPS  Scientist

August  Meessen, Professor of Physics at the Catholic  University

at  Louvain. He told the French magazine Paris Match: "There  are

too  many independent eyewitness reports to ignore. Too  many  of

the  reports describe coherent physical effects, and there is  an

agreement among the accounts concerning what was observed. If all

of these witnesses are lying, then it is a mental disease of such

novelty and proportions that it must be studied."

  "But  of  course,"  continued Prof. Meessen,  "there  are  also

physical effects. The Air Force report allows us to approach  the

problem in a rational and scientific way. The simplest hypothesis

is that the reports are caused by extraterrestrial visitors,  but

that  hypothesis carries with it other problems. We are not in  a

rush  to form a conclusion, but continue to study  the  mystery."

The last word about the UFO flap that has brought down "The Wall"

of UFO Silence has yet to be uttered.

     ABOUT THE AUTHOR Chilean-American journalist Antonio Huneeus

was  born in New York in 1950, the son of a Chilean diplomat  and

United  States  official. After studying French at  the  Sarbonne

University  in Paris in 1970 and journalism at the University  of

Chile,  he  worked  as science editor for a  weekly  magazine  in

Santiago  and  was  a contributor for  a  number  of  newspapers.

Huneeus'  UFO investigation began in 1977 with the bizarre  "time

warp"  incident  of Chilean Army Corporal Armando  Valdes.  Since

then,  he  has written hundreds of articles on UFOs  and  related

subjects for such publications as Omni, UFO Report, and the MUFON

JOURNAL  in the U.S., as well as for magazines  throughout  South

America  and Europe. Last year he won the UFOlogists of the  Year

Award  given by the National UFO Conference. The photographs  and

art  that  accompany  this  article are  part  of  Antonio's  UFO

CHRONICLE  lecture and slide presentation. Readers may reach  the

author directly at Box 1989, New York, NY 10159.

END

PARANET FILE NAME: BELGIUM1.UFO

 * Origin: ParaNet -- Leading UFO Research Network (1:104/428.0)