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Case of Metzeral, on January 18, 1979:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1979-01-18-METZERAL-1

Summary:

The local ufologist Jacques Journot published his three-page investigation report with photos of the place on a case of January 18, 1978, in Metzeral, in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit #187 of August - September 1979.

Following an article in the newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for January 16, 1979, about a phenomenon of January 5, 1979, he went to the Gendarmerie of Munster, and presenting his activities, he learned that children from Metzeral had seen a "flying saucer" on Thursday evening, January 18, 1979. He went there immediately, first contacting the schoolmaster, Mr. Colard, and the first witness, Sylvie Meyer, to whom he asked to write and draw what she had seen, asking her to tell his cousin, Emmanuelle Roess, the second witness, to do the same, but without then showing each other what they write; and he made an appointment for January 24, 1979.

When he saw the schoolmaster Mr. Colard, the latter had immediately shown him an essay on the observation drafted that very morning by Sylvie Meyer, while his class had had to write a free essay. The teacher told him that the two girls were not used to telling fancy stories and that for him they had really seen something unusual. J. Journot asked him whether he had already spoken about UFOs in classroom, he answered that during the first term, around October, they had studied the sky, the stars, and talked about "other beings who may live in another universe", in the class where Sylvie was, Emmanuelle being in another class.

J. Journot indicates that the sighting took place on Thursday, January 18, 1979, in Metzeral, 7 km southwest of Munster in the Haut-Rhin, around 5 p.m. at nightfall, then around 6:30 p.m. under a dark night. The sky was overcast, it was snowing lightly, and it was cold: -6°C.

He presents the two witnesses: Emmanuelle Roess, born August 16, 1970, a schoolgirl in Metzeral in CE2 class, and her cousin Sylvie Meyer, born July 21, 1968, also a schoolgirl in Metzeral, in CM2 class.

He first gives Emmanuelle's story, supplemented with background details:

At her home, Emmanuelle was playing in the kitchen with Sylvie, and around 5 p.m., looking out the window facing south, they saw an orange ball that hurt their eyes a bit, which had three red and yellow lights flashing. She says that "It was going fast", that she saw it for about 15 seconds, that it passed over the mountains, and then disappeared from their sight. J. Journot explains that the ridges are at an altitude of about 700 meters, that is, 200 meters higher than the girl's house, that the UFO was going from East to West.

Around 6:30 p.m., Sylvie left to go home. Emmanuelle explains that she usually takes her home, but since it was cold, she stayed at her own home.

Emmanuelle, looking through the window of her bedroom to the north, suddenly saw a light on her left. She opened the window and shouted at Sylvie, asking her to look towards the ruins of the old factory.

Emmanuelle saw Sylvie looking to her left, and running home. Emmanuelle closed her window immediately after.

Emmanuelle says she...

... looked at this orange light, which hurt my eyes, with three yellow and red lights, and in the middle a white chrome circle for about 15 minutes. It just stood still.

It made like May 21, 2021May 21, 2021May 21, 2021May 21, 2021Z (like a bee). Then it left very quickly towards the mountains (towards the South). All three lights were blinking (at the rate of 2 blinks per second approximately, according to the investigator showing her how fast he was opening and closing his hands) and in the middle the white circle was spinning (counterclockwise).

I ran into the kitchen and saw it go over the mountain and disappear. I don't know what it was. When I went to bed (around 9 p.m.) my eyes still hurt."

Emmanuelle clarified that when the UFO left - the investigator determined that it was around 6:45 p.m. - 6:50 p.m. - the chrome circle was spinning slowly, and when she saw it above the mountain, before losing sight of it, this circle was spinning very quickly.

Sylvie's story was:

"Thursday evening at 4:00 p.m., I went to my cousin Emmanuelle's place (distance between the 2 houses: 15 meters - Distance to walk: 40 m). We were playing in the kitchen. We looked through the window (around 5:00 p.m.). We saw an orange light which hurt our eyes; which passed along the mountain, it went down. It must have been hidden by a mountain. We did not see it anymore. I said "what is it?" After some thought Emmanuelle said: "it may be a flying saucer", we didn't think about it anymore. Around 6:30 p.m., I was going home. I was at the corner of my house, Emmanuelle called me scared and shouted: "Sylvie look towards the ruins of the old factory!" I turned and I was startled with amazement. A shape of an orange disc with three lights, the top was red and the bottom was yellow. It was moving towards me when I took a step. I ran inside and went to the dining room window (facing north). This shape had reverted to the place where where I had seen it before arriving home. It was approximately 5 meters above the electric wires (3 wires of the Low Voltage line), and remained motionless. I heard a noise: May 21, 2021May 21, 2021May 21, 2021Z, like a bee (heard outside, more faintly in the house, the left ear plugged with his hand because of the T.V. that was working nearby). I watched for at least 10 minutes. My mother called me for supper. Once finished, I told the emotion to my mother who did not believe me. I looked out the window again, but there was nothing left. This orange light hurt my eyes. Sometimes I would put my hand over my eyes to alleviate the pain, and I would look again. Around 8 p.m. I went to bed. My eyes still hurt, but I slept well."

J. Journot explains that he saw these children three times: January 20, 24, and February 2, 1979. He did not notice any particular contradictions despite the traps he set; the stories "stood". Emmanuelle had seen more detail, perhaps because she had had a slightly different viewing angle from that of her cousin. The position of the three luminosities was the same in both accounts.

He notes that the notion of time is not yet precise in young children, but that he had questioned their mothers and was therefore able to establish that the phenomenon had been seen for about 15 minutes.

He notes that while Sylvie was looking out the dining room window, her 7-year-old brother and her two 5-year-old twin sisters were watching "L'île aux Enfants" on TV, which makes it easy to set the time as 06:35 p.m. - 06:40 p.m.

He notes that the children did not notice any malfunction in the TV. He points out that it is striking that Sylvie did not ask her brothers and sisters to come and see this phenomenon, nor call her mother, and that Emmanuelle also had the same reaction. They couldn't explain to him why they hadn't alerted anyone.

He notes that the surrounding dogs had barked, but that Sylvie specified that they often did. No one else seemed to have seen anything odd that night.

No side effects were observed, neither on the two girls, nor on the environment. On the 24th, J. Journot looked for magnetic anomalies with a compass and found nothing of the sort. Sylvie slept well the night of the observation, but Emmanuelle "dreamed a lot and was agitated during the night" according to her mother.

One difference in the accounts was that Sylvie said that the UFO moved towards her when she was around the corner of the house, but Emmanuelle claimed that the UFO always stood still.

J. Journot had the girls make angular size estimates with a comparator, and estimates that this resulted in an object of approximately 1 meter to 1.60 meters assuming it was 100 meters away; he indicates that it is also possible that the UFO was 120 or 130 meters from the witnesses.

For him, the two girls seem to be in good faith; Sylvie believes in UFOs, she saw helicopters 8 days ago and said that it was nothing like what she observed, whose nature she does not understand, just like Emmanuelle for that matter. It was the first time they had seen such a thing. Girls are now scared at night and rarely go out after dark.

Both mothers do not believe in UFOs, no one ever talks about this topic at home, where there is nothing to read about this topic.

J. Journot indicates that he was very well received, by the families as well as by the gendarmerie officers of Munster with whom he had been able to speak several times for a very long time, having lent them some LDLN magazines. He specifies that the Munster Gendarmerie did not file a report on this case, as they did not have the time to do it.

His report is illustrated with photos and sketches, visible further down in this file.

The case has been the subject of several very succinct summaries in French and American ufology literature. It was more fully summarized by Christian Valentin in his 2012 book about UFOs in Alsace.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":

[Ref. mft1:] "FRANCAT" - MICHEL FIGUET:

[Ref. djn1:] DONALD JOHNSON:

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH:

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The sources are indicated as: "Lumieres dans la Nuit, Lumieres dans la Nuit; Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002."

[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

The former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book about the history of UFO sightings and other flying saucers in Alsace, form the origins until 1980.

In this book, he tells there was a case on Thursday, January 18, 1979, at 5:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Jacques Journot published the investigation he did in early 1979, in the journal "Lumières Dans La Nuit" #187 in September 1979.

In Metzeral, two girls aged 9 and 11, S. and E. were at S.'s home, in the kitchen, when they saw through the kitchen window overlooking the south side a very luminous orange ball belted on the left, right and bottom by three flashing red and yellow lights.

The object was seen for fifteen seconds moving close to the mountain crest. At 06:30 p.m., E. leaves his girlfriend and returns to his parents' home a few tens of meters away. S., who looked at her go away though the window, opened the door and suddenly called, frightened because the luminous object had reappeared and was advancing toward her, emitting a humming noise that reminded her of the noise of a bee.

She described the object as an orange disc with three flashing lights on each side, red and yellow, and one yellow light on the bottom). S., during the second appearance notes the presence at the center of the object of a chrome white round rotating in anticlockwise direction.

The observation lasted about ten minutes.

The LDLN investigator had interviewed the two friends separately several times, without "noting any contradiction despite his attempts to trick them."

Discussion:

The case, investigated with some care, seems rather "good" to me; the description does not appear to be that of a helicopter. Of course the witnesses are children and there is no "hard evidence" to decide with certainty that it was indeed an extraterrestrial craft.

I could have leaned for a double observation, first that of some conventional aircraft passing over the mountain, then a Saint-Elmo fire or corona effect on the power line; but in this second case, we are told that the "ball" was "5 m above the electric wires", therefore too high, and that it was a "3 wire" line at low voltage, which is not not very favorable to such an effect. The description and the sketch do not match such explanations, anyways.

Evaluation:

Possible extraterrestrial visitors.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [ldl1] * Report by Jacques Journot in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #187, pp 2528, August / September 1979.
• [mft1] * "Catalogue Francat des Rencontres Rapprochées en France", catalogue by Michel Figuet, in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #261-262, page 19, April 1986.
• [djn1] * "Encounters with Aliens on this Day - January 18", web page by Donald Johnson, PhD, USA, not dated, circa 2002, at http://www.ufoinfo.com/onthisday/January18.html
• [nip1] * "The 1979 UFO Chronology", web page compiled by The NICAP Website, USA, created October 15, 2007, updated March 31, 2014, at http://www.nicap.org/waves/1979fullrep.htm
• [lhh1] * "*U* Computer Database", compiled by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [uda1] * "18 Jan 1979 - Metzeral, Alsace, France", web page by the UFOdna website, circa 2013, at http://thecid.com/ufo/uf11/uf7/117540.htm
• [cvn2] * "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés - Histoire des soucoupes volantes en Alsace jusqu'en 1980", book by Christian Valentin, Grimoires d'Alsace publishers, France, page 134, 2012.

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