At 17:13, a motorist driving from Eupen to Eynatten, between Kettenis and Merols, saw towards the North-East, between Eynatten and Raeren, a flying object with very bright lights.
At 17:30, he was stopped by the red traffic light at Merols, he rolled down a window, and could hear no sound from the object.
The magazine published this sketch right after the above sighting report:
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Source:
SOBEPS indicates that while the UFO already seen by others goes towards Eupen, a man of very important official occupation for the city of Eupen, who asked to remain anonymous, made the observation that follows between Kettenis and Merols.
He starts at exactly 05:30 p.m. from a location within the city of Eupen to go to Eynatten with a colleague.
Shortly beyond Kettenis, they saw a flying object with very bright headlights, moving slowly towards Eupen on the right of the N68 road and quite close to that road.
The driver thinks it could be a helicopter, but he was surprised by three things: the slow flight, the very low altitude, and the overly bright headlights.
He crosses the path of the object and clearly sees three beams of light that illuminate the ground, from a dark triangular shape. The triangle shape has a low height and a wide base, it moves with the tip to the direction of the movement.
It has three round lamps that emit a white light of constant intensity, and somewhere on the axis of symmetry of the triangle there is a smaller, red, flashing light.
The witness is then very surprised at what he sees, and when he has to stop at a red traffic light at Merols, he opens a window of the car to check whether the object is indeed making a helicopter sound. He hears nothing.
He then continues to look from time to time at the object in his rearview mirror, the object remains on the east side of the N68 road.
He reached Eynatten and fulfilled his mission there, and then returns to Eupen, and sees again the same object.
The object is flying slowly at a short distance of the N68 road and east of the road. The lights of the object are still bright, and directed downward, then at some point the object makes a turn to the West.
The witness does not remember how far from the city of Eupen this turn occurred. He lost sight of the object, and took care of his work.
At Eupen at 05:45 p.m., he finished what he had to do in the city, something that had to be unloaded.
Source:
The observation published like this by French ufologist Jérôme Beau:
5:13 p.m. A witness exercising an official function for the city of Euphen starts from a spot within the city to get to Eynatten. A colleague is sitting next to him. A little beyond Kettenis, they saw a flying object with very powerful headlights. It moves slowly towards Eupen, to the right of the N68 road and quite close to it. The driver thinks it could be a helicopter, but was surprised at the slow flight, the very low altitude, and especially the excessively bright headlights. Crossing the object path he clearly perceives three beams that illuminate the ground and a dark triangular shape. It is a triangle with a low height and wide base, moving point forward. In addition to its three large round headlights, emitting white light of constant intensity, there is a flashing red, smaller, light somewhere on the axis of symmetry. This lamp flashes at a constant frequency between 1 and 2 times / s. The astonishment of the witness is such that, when forced to stop at a red light at Merois he opens the car window to see if he hears a helicopter noise. He hears nothing and continue to watch from time to time the object in his rearview mirror. He saw that it stays on the east side of the N68 road SOBEPS 91.
The witness of 05:13 p.m. having completed his mission in Eynatten returns to Eupen and sees the same object again. It flies slowly, at a short distance from the N68 road on the east side of it. The lights are still bright and directed downward, but at some point, the subject takes a turn to the west. The witness lost sight of the object and takes care of his mission. Unloading in Eupen ended around 5:45 p.m. SOBEPS 91.
Source:
| 04:40 p.m. (sunset at 04:37 p.m.) | |
| 04:50 p.m. | |
| 05:00 p.m. | |
| 05:10 p.m. | |
| 05:20 p.m. | |
| 05:30 p.m. | |
| 05:40 p.m. | |
| 05:50 p.m. |
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Based on the two reports above and on the SOBEPS map (source cited above), the situation for the observation is as follows:
The green dot indicates the position of the observer at the beginning of observation: they had left Eupen and were a little beyond Kettenis on the N68 road (now E421) driving towards Eynatten.
The red arrow shows the direction and orientation of the path of the object: it is east of the road, on their right, not far from the road, it moves slowly towards Eupen.
Then, the driver drove on to Eynatten and looked from time to time at the object in his rearview mirror.
According to the SOBEPS map, he looked at the object until he reach Merols - the blue dot - where he opened a window of the car while stopped by a red traffic light, to hear a possible helicopter noise.
On his return from Eynatten he saw the object again, making a turn to the west, but he does not remember how far from Eupen this occurred.
Readers of the SOBEPS reports or my file on the observation that day in the Eupen area know that this observation is obviously not the only one along the N68. Referring to the situation map by SOBEPS (source cited above) we see that there are 7 sightings of the passing of the same object at the same time - admitting the the inevitable inaccuracies of the times given - from the German border at Lichtenbusch to Eupen along the N68 road. And of course there were dozens of other sightings in the Eupen area later that evening.
The most remarkable correspondence is probably that it is on the same road between Kettenis and Merols coming from Eupen and going to Eynatten that officers Hubert von Montigny and Heinrich Nicoll made their 5:30 p.m. observation, the one that became the most famous of the day! The description is exactly the same: a triangular platform with a wide base, moving with the pointed part in the direction of travel, with three large white lights projecting beams of white light towards the ground and a red flashing light in the middle.
It should be noted that for this observation, as for almost all of them that day, the possibility that it was a helicopter was not a "forgotten hypothesis" for the witnesses, but a possibility they thought about at first, and then discarded as they took better notice of the characteristics of the object.
"UFO-skeptic" German ufologist Werner Walter (Grenz-Echo newspaper, Eupen, March 5, 1994) and others have claimed that what was seen there was an ultralight plane. But it is clear that there were no ultralight planes matching the descriptions, or carrying three large white lights on some triangular wing, projecting beams of white light towards the ground.
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| Version: | Created/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 5, 2013 | Creation. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 5, 2013 | First publication. |
