The Belgian UFO wave — Eupen, 1989–1990

OVERVIEW

The Belgian UFO wave was a series of sightings of triangular UFOs in Belgium from 29 November 1989 to April 1990. It began in the city of Eupen, where 143 people reported seeing an unidentified flying object — though most reports came in over a week after the event, following media coverage. Many described a large, flat, triangular craft flying low with lights underneath.

HISTORY

The wave peaked on the night of 30 March 1990. About 23:00 the Control Reporting Centre at Glons received reports of three unusual lights towards Thorembais-Gembloux; Semmerzake tracked an object on radar and two F-16s were scrambled from Beauvechain. Over the next hour they attempted nine interceptions and three times obtained a radar lock for a few seconds; the pilots never saw anything. Gendarmerie Captain Pinson at Wavre described four lights in a square, making short jerky movements, which faded and went off in four directions about 01:30. The Belgian Air Force published a report on the night.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Brian Dunning argues that the first Eupen report described a helicopter, that the three radar locks were the two F-16s locking on each other, that the other contacts were Bragg scattering, and that the reports — 2,600 in all to the ufology group SOBEPS — were solicited after the fact through the media: 'simply a psychosocial phenomenon'. Marc Hallet (1992) called the wave a mass delusion boosted by SOBEPS; the physicist Auguste Meessen held it completely unexplained. General Wilfried De Brouwer first suspected experimental American aircraft; US authorities said no USAF stealth aircraft were operating there.

VISITING

The pin marks Eupen, where the wave began.