AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT ON THE RADAR OF AN F-16

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The following was given to me by Mark Rodeghier / Center for  UFO

Studies, 2457 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL. 60659.  Any  comment

in brackets [] is mine.  BB

  *******************

EYES ONLY VOL. 1, No. 1

The  Ufological wit and wisdom of Bob Durant or, the  material  I

prepared  for the New Jersey MUFON Newsletter but  they  wouldn't

print.

*  *  *

   PARIS  MATCH is a slick French weekly something like a  classy

cross  between TIME and PEOPLE MAGAZINE. It is very  widely  read

and something of a journalistic institution. Although the  reader

can  count on the latest gossip concerning Charles and  Lady  Di,

each  issue  also  contains serious  coverage  of  political  and

scientific issues.

   Thanks  to  the  linguistic  abilities  of  my  wife,  I  have

translated  an astonishing article that appeared in the  July  5,

1990  issue.  This recounts a series of sightings of a  UFO  over

Belgium.  There were thousands of witnesses, and the  object  was

tracked  simultaneously by two ground radar installations and  by

the airborne intercept radars of two F-16 fighters sent to  chase

it.

   But  by far the most significant aspect of this case  is  that

the Belgium government released all the data and worked in  close

cooperation  with  a civilian UFO research organization.  To  the

best of my knowledge, this is unique in the history of ufology.

   Indeed  it is the "political" aspect that prodded me  to  take

the  considerable  time  and  effort  to  make  this  translation

available  to  ufologists  in the U.S.    Please  "network"  this

document as you see fit, remembering that the article (but not my

translation) is copyrighted.

  Sincerely,

  BOB  (signed)

  R.J. Durant

*    *    *

      AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT ON THE RADAR OF AN F-16

  by Marie-Theresa De Brosses

   The  Belgium  Defense Minister authorized us to  publish  this

report.  It  is the "scoop of the sky." These  two  screens  (see

photos)  [The  article is referring to two photos  of  the  radar

screens in the F-16 which are derived from an internal  recording

device in the plane. Photo one shows the UFO as a diamond on  the

screen  framed by short vertical lines indicating that the  pilot

has instructed the computer to follow the target. The  comparison

of the two photos supports statements by the pilots that the  UFO

dove  from 2,000 meters (7,000 ft) to 00, indicating that it  was

below  the  200 meter limit on the radar. This  occurred  in  ONE

second.] are the incontestable witnesses of a meeting of  science

& fiction. In an unprecedented action, the Belgium Air Force  has

released pictures of the radar images of UFOs intercepted by  the

pilots  of their F-16 fighters. It was the precision and  clarity

of the pictures that convinced the Defense Minister to order full

resources  deployed in the gigantic chase of the UFO  during  the

Easter  weekend.  PARIS MATCH takes you behind  the  symbols  and

numbers of these exceptional pictures to discover the  incredible

performance  of  those  flying objects which are  very  real  but

nonetheless  unidentified.  We may not be the only  ones  in  the

universe.

   There  are  people in the military services who  are  normally

silent on this subject but who now say: the UFOs are not a  myth.

On  June  22nd,  for  the first time in  history,  an  Air  Force

revealed  an important piece of this story which is  not  science

fiction.

   On  this  day,  after  going  through  a  meticulous  security

screening,  I find myself in the headquarters of the Belgium  Air

Force near Brussels. In a small room, Colonel DeBrouwer, Chief of

Operations  of  the  Belgium  Air Force,  started  a  video  tape

recorder.  On the screen appeared the film that was brought  back

in  the  "black box" of the F-16 that was launched to  chase  the

UFO.  This,  it turned out, was not really the  important  chase,

which  would  happen  two weeks later, when  practically  all  of

Belgium tried to capture the UFO. But until now we were not  told

about the one Colonel DeBrouwer was about to describe.

   The  Belgium military had been on alert since  November  1989,

when numerous reports by the Gendarmerie (National police  force)

began  pouring  in daily telling of observations  of  UFOs  above

Belgium territory. It had started on the crazy night of  November

29,  1989, during which 30 groups of witnesses, among them  three

police patrols, scattered over 800 square kilometers of territory

between  Liege and the German/Netherlands border, reported  UFOs.

All  of  the witnesses observed for hours  a  strange  triangular

object  nearly  silent,  maneuvering at low speed  and  very  low

altitude, without creating the least amount of turbulence.

   As  do the world's Air Forces, the Belgian  military  have  at

their disposal supersonic interceptor airplanes ready 24 hours  a

day  to  take off with five minutes notice. In this case  we  are

talking  about  two  F-16  single  pilot  fighters,  armed   with

missiles.  Headquarters was prudent and conservative. During  the

previous month the two planes have twice been sent in response to

sightings  but without results. The first time they saw  nothing.

The second instance was attributed to an advertising  searchlight

for a night club.

   On the night of March 30th, one of the callers reporting a UFO

was a Captain of the national police at Pinson, and  Headquarters

decided  to  make  a serious effort to  verify  the  reports.  In

addition  to the visual sightings, two radar  installations  also

saw the UFO. One radar is at Glons, southeast of Brussels,  which

is part of the NATO defense group, and one at Semmerzake, west of

the Capitol, which controls the military and civilian traffic  of

the entire Belgian territory. The range of the two radars is  300

KM, which is more than enough to cover the area where the reports

took  place.  In  this region the land is  fairly  flat,  rolling

country  without  any prominent hills. The radar  has  a  perfect

view of all flying objects with an altitude above 200 meters over

the ground. Nevertheless, Headquarters determined to do some very

precise  studies  during  the next 55 minutes  to  eliminate  the

possibility  of  prosaic  explanations  for  the  radar   images.

Excellent  atmospheric  conditions prevailed, and  there  was  no

possibility of false echoes due to temperature inversions.

   All military and civilian airplanes are equipped with a device

called a transponder which permits their immediate identification

on the radar screen in the form of a coded signal. The radar echo

received  on  that night was like that of an  airplane  that  was

moving  at very low speed, about 50 KPH, and frequently  changing

direction  and  altitude.  But it did not  send  any  identifying

transponder signal.

   Naturally, the Belgian Air Force can't permit an  unidentified

object to fly over its territory. So at 0005 hours the order  was

given to the F-16s to take off and to find the intruder. The lead

pilot  concentrated  on his radar screen, which at night  is  his

best   organ   of  vision.  The  F-16  is  equipped   with   very

sophisticated  equipment,  including chase radar,  which  is  not

fixed directly ahead of the airplane, but makes a wide search  in

an arc of 90 degrees left and right of the nose. Slightly  behind

the  lead  fighter, the wingman in the second F-16  followed  the

movements of the first jet, concentrating on maintaining  contact

with the center of coordination of the search.

   Suddenly the two fighters spotted the intruder on their  radar

screens, appearing like a little bee dancing on the scope.  Using

their  joy  sticks  like a video game,  the  pilots  ordered  the

onboard  computers to pursue the target. As soon as  lock-on  was

achieved,  the target appeared on the screen as a diamond  shape,

telling the pilots that from that moment on the F-16s will remain

tracking the object automatically. On the screen is indicated the

object's position, distance and speed. The object was very  close

to the fighters.

   On this portion of the video tape that Col. DeBrouwer has,  in

such  an exceptional manner, allowed us to see, we can  hear  the

radio exchange of the two pilots. The emotions of the pilots  are

clearly  perceptible. "Look," the Colonel tells me  stopping  the

VCR,  and  showing me the diamond shape on the screen,  "At  this

stage  in the chase in our military jargon it means a  successful

interception."

   Then  I  said,  in layman's terms,  what  does  a  "successful

interception"  mean?  He answered, "Our fighter planes are  armed

with automatically self-directed missiles. Once they are launched

internal  computers  in  the  missiles  intelligently  guide  the

missiles to the target by themselves. Of course, in this case  of

the  UFO there was no question of doing that. We only  wanted  to

identify the intruder."

   The  pilot  did not even have time to  start  this  procedure,

which requires the fighter's radar to stay locked on for at least

six  seconds.  But  the object had speeded  up  from  an  initial

velocity  of  280 KPH to 1,800 KPH, while descending  from  3,000

meters   to   1,700  meters...in  one  second!   This   fantastic

acceleration  corresponds  to  40  Gs.  [A  "G"  is  a  unit   of

acceleration.  One G is equivalent to the gravitational  pull  of

the  earth, 9.81 m/sec/sec.] It would cause immediate death to  a

human on board. The limit of what a pilot can take is about 8 Gs.

And the trajectory of the object was extremely disconcerting.  It

arrived at 1,700 meters altitude, then it dove rapidly toward the

ground  at an altitude under 200 meters, and in doing so  escaped

from  the  radars of the fighters and ground units at  Glons  and

Semmerzake.  This  maneuver  took  place  over  the  suburbs   of

Brussels,  which are so full of man-made lights that  the  pilots

lost sight of the object beneath them.

   "In  any  event, 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 KPH. Above that speed,  the

temperature  in the compressors of the jet turbines  would  cause

the  engines to burst," said Col. DeBrouwer. "There was  a  logic

behind the motions of the object."

   Everything  indicates  that  this  object  was   intelligently

directed  to  escape from the pursuing planes.  During  the  next

hours the scenario repeated twice.  The Commander of the  Belgian

Air  Force gave me a detailed report which had been  produced  by

the  Belgian Society For The Study of Special Phenomena  (Sobeps)

in cooperation with the Air Force.  The report states: "In  three

cases the pilots managed to get their radar locked on the object,

with the immediate result that the object's behavior  drastically

changed.  The  object  literally played hide and  seek  with  the

fighters.  It dived toward the ground to evade the  airborne  and

ground  radars.  Then  it  climbed back into  radar  range  in  a

leisurely manner, thus initiating a new chase.

   This  fantastic  game of hide and seek was observed  from  the

ground  by  a great number of witnesses, among them  20  national

policemen  who saw both the object and the F-16s.  The  encounter

lasted  75  minutes, but nobody heard the supersonic  boom  which

should  have been present when the object flew through the  sonic

barrier. No physical damage was reported. Given the low  altitude

and  the  speed  of the object, many  windows  should  have  been

broken.

   So,  for the first time in history, a newspaper  reporter  was

allowed  to  see  a  document  which  established  proof  of   an

interception  of a UFO by a military fighter. I have seen on  the

video  screen the flight maneuvers and the extraordinary  changes

in speed of the UFO.

   All the details of this affair are related in the report which

has just been released by Sobeps. This collaboration between  the

Air  Force  of a nation and a private research group  is  without

precedent and must be taken very seriously.  Also, the competence

of  the  civilian  researchers is worthy  of  trust.  This  group

includes  several scientists with excellent credentials  such  as

physicist Leo Brenig, Professor at the University of Brussels and

August  Meesen, Professor at the Catholic University of  Louvain,

who has belonged to Sobeps since its creation 18 years ago. On  a

television  interview,  Mr. Guy Coeme the  Minister  of  Defense,

declared  that  he had authorized the AIr Force  to  release  all

information at their disposal to Sobep.

   After having seen this dramatic sequence, I posed a number  of

questions to Col. DeBrouwer. First, could the object have been  a

radiosonde balloon?

   "No, the object acted as if it was totally independent of  the

winds, and we have done, among other things, a complete review of

meteorological  conditions.  This is why we did not  publish  the

report until now. We wanted to do a complete study to verify  all

aspects of the case. Our military defense system is not  prepared

for this sort of thing. We had to analyze and interpret the  data

from the recording inside the fighters."

   Is it a natural phenomenon, or perhaps the debris from rockets

or satellites or space junk? "No, a meteorite or a fragment of  a

rocket  does not enter the atmosphere in a zig zag  fashion.  The

analysis   of  the  radar  traces  showed  numerous  changes   in

direction,   and  the  atmospheric  conditions   that   prevailed

precluded any electromagnetic phenomenon as the cause."

   But  I asked how about the famous F-117 the  American  Stealth

airplane,  which  many  people think may  be  responsible?  "This

airplane is absolutely designed for penetration at low  altitude.

On the other hand it has a minimum speed of 278 KPH and the  UFOs

speed  went down to 40 KPH. The F-117 does not have engines  that

can  be tilted down for very slow speed flight. Also no  airplane

is capable of flying at 1,800 KPH or so low to the ground without

creating a sonic boom."

   Then  he gave me a telex sent by the Military Attache  of  the

U.S.  Ambassador  to  the  Commander of  the  Belgian  Air  Force

confirming  that  the  Stealth airplane was  never  stationed  on

European territory nor did it ever fly over that territory.

   Professor Jean Pierre Petit accompanied me in my visit to  the

Belgian  Air Force Headquarters. He once served as  a  controller

for jet interception exercises. Petit is a senior physicist and a

director  of  research with the National  Center  for  Scientific

Research  of  France. He has recently published a  book  entitled

"Investigation of UFOs," published by Editions Albin Michel,  and

makes this strong statement:

   "In  reality,  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.  What degree of confidence can we place on this  statement?

The  same  as  that  in Astrophysics  connected  with  the  first

detection  of  a  Supernova  in 1987  in  the  Magellanic  Clouds

galactic group. Proof of the existence of this stellar  cataclysm

we  call a Supernova relies on this single unique observation.  I

am  completely  convinced that this type of  UFO  observation  by

radar  has  already happened many times over the  past  30  years

either  by means of the sophisticated radar of the F-16 which  is

typical  of that used by the world's air forces for the past  ten

years or before that by conventional radar.  And those  countries

who have had radar contacts have kept the fact in strict  secrecy

to avoid public panic."

   But  what is happening right now, what is the reason for  this

sudden revelation of the truth?

   "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. Look at the work of Professor Meesen."

   "Sobeps  has  collected  more  than  one  thousand  eyewitness

reports from the UFO wave over Belgium. One report is  especially

interesting.  On  the  night of March 31, at  a  location  30  KM

southeast of Brussels, three completely reliable witnesses had  a

sighting.  They  were  Lucien  Clerebaut,  Secretary  General  of

Sobeps,  Patrick  Ferrym,  a Moving Picture  Producer,  and  Jose

Fernandez.  They  observed  a bright luminous light  low  on  the

horizon.  The light got bigger and closer, and was seen to be  an

object  of triangular form with rounded angles. It  was  carrying

four  spotlights  and the periphery of the  object  had  numerous

smaller  lights  around it. As it passed over their heads  at  an

altitude which they estimated to be 300 to 400 meters, the object

had  a diameter six times that of a full moon.  Mr.  Ferrym  took

four  pictures  of the object with a very high  sensitivity  film

with  an ASA of 1,600. As a control he photographed  an  ordinary

airplane  several minutes later, using the same  shutter  opening

and speed."

   "When  the film was developed he got a surprise. The  position

lights  of the airplane were clearly shown on the  pictures.  But

the `spotlights' on the UFO, which to the naked eye had been much

stronger   than   the  lights  on  the  airplane,   were   hardly

discernible.  The  general form of the UFO, which had  also  been

clearly  visible, was lost on the film. It should be  noted  that

the UFO was also much closer to the observers than the airplane."

   Recalling  that a simple infrared ray can prevent  some  films

from  being exposed, Professor Meesen performed an experiment  in

his laboratory. Using a prism, he projected directly on unexposed

film a spectrum of light, going from red to purple, superimposing

an infrared ray on the lower part of the negative.  When the film

was developed, the spectrum of light is perfectly visible in  the

portion   of  the  film  untouched  by  the  infrared   ray   but

considerably attenuated, though not completely annihilated, where

the infrared light struck the film."

   The  Professor continued, "If the UFOs are really  a  physical

object,  and if they propagate infrared light, it would be  quite

normal  that photographs would contain some surprises  when  they

were developed. This could include the total disappearance of the

object  that had been observed visually. This would  explain  the

very  low  number of pictures that we have received in  this  UFO

wave as well as the failure to get close up pictures.

   Professor  Meesen  remained  very  conservative.  As  a   good

disciple  of the famous scientist Claude Bernard, he is  faithful

to the Scientific Method, which consists of observing facts, then

proposing   hypotheses   to  explain  the   facts   and   finally

accomplishing experimental verification of the hypotheses. To him

it  is absolutely essential to study this enigmatic file  of  UFO

reports:  "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 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 also to study the mystery."

   When  I  first  met  Prof. Meesen, he had  not  yet  seen  the

document  that  was shown to me by Col. DeBrouwer. This  was  the

Belgian Air Force report on the successful interceptions of March

30, which allowed us to understand why the military had placed at

the  disposal of Sobep such facilities as the  F-16  interceptors

and a twin engine Hawker airplane. The Hawker could carry a large

number  of researchers  and many measuring devices, including  an

enormous  infrared  camera. During this eventful  weekend,  which

drew in tens of thousands of witnesses, the military had put  top

priority  on the UFO, but was remaining silent.  They  wanted  to

know more before speaking.

   The  press was astonished by the "unsuccessful" hunt  on  this

Easter  weekend.  But it is all clear now. We could not say  that

the  UFO  did  not  actually meet us,  because  there  were  many

observations from the ground. But if the device had stayed  under

200 meters in altitude, it would have been undetectable by radar.

   Now  the sightings have dribbled off, the witnesses rarer  and

rarer.  But  the questions still remain. How  disconcerting  this

wave  of UFO sightings over Belgium! First of all,  why  Belgium?

Why  these  thousands  of witnesses in a  six  month  period?  In

previous decades witnesses often described landings, but why were

there  no landing reports? Why the triangular shape of  the  UFO,

reported by more than 90% of the witnesses? At the moment, all of

these are questions without an answer.

   "For  us, the release of this report by the Belgian Air  Force

and  the confidence in us that it bespeaks is the reward  for  18

years of work," concluded Lucien Clerebaut of Sobeps.

   Regardless of the frustrating irregularity of this  phenomenon

(waves  of  sightings mixed with long periods  of  absence),  and

regardless of the sarcasms of those scientists who are  violently

hostile to this kind of investigation which they consider to be a

sort  of  scientific disease, a few eminent  scientists  such  as

Professors  Meesen,  Brenig and Petit continue  their  methodical

work.

   Now is the time to help them.

END

PARANET FILE NAME:  BELMATCH.UFO