ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case of Mulhouse - Dornach, in June 1980:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1980-06-00-MULHOUSEDORNACH-1

Summary:

Belgian ufologist Godelieve van Overmeire, since then a "skeptic", found in the French sensation magazine Nostra for January 1982, that in June 1980, around noon, in Dornach, Haut-Rhin, France, Virginia Ellena saw from her window a device whose shape resembled that of a phone and that passed successively from silver to red then black before disappearing in the direction of Bourtzwiller.

I later found that this came from an article of the regional newspaper L'Alsace for June 22, 1980, telling:

Saucer

Mrs. Virginie Ellena, residing at 67, rue des Grains in Dornach, saw the other day, from her window, at 10 past noon a craft in the form of a telephone which she identified as a flying saucer and which successively changed from silver to red and black, before disappearing in the direction of the Gare du Nord and Bourtzwiller.

Are the green men preparing to invest Mulhouse?

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	June 1980
Time:	~12:00
Duration:	?
First known report date:	January 1982
Reporting delay:	2 years.

Geographical data:

Department:	Haut-Rhin
City:	Mulhouse - Dornach
Place:	From inside through window, UFO in the sky.
Latitude:	47.745
Longitude:	7.308
Uncertainty radius:	2 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	1
Number of known witnesses:	1
Number of named witnesses:	1
Witness(es) ages:	?
Witness(es) types:	Female.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Sensation magazine Nostra.
Type of location:	From inside through window, UFO in the sky.
Visibility conditions:	Day.
UFO observed:	Yes
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	Yes
Entities:	No
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	Puzzled.
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Hynek:	DD
ALSACAT:	Unexplained, but poor information and low credibility.

Sources:

[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":

Saucer

Mrs. Virginie Ellena, residing at 67, rue des Grains in Dornach, saw the other day, from her window, at 10 past noon a craft in the form of a telephone which she identified as a flying saucer and which successively changed from silver to red and black, before disappearing in the direction of the Gare du Nord and Bourtzwiller.

Are the green men preparing to invest Mulhouse?

[Ref. goe1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

1980, June

FRANCE, Dornach (Haut-Rhin)

It was around noon when Virginia Ellena saw from her window, a device whose shape resembled that of a phone and that passed successively from silver to red then black before disappearing in the direction of Bourtzwiller. (Jean-Marie DOUCHET - Nostra - 1/21/1982)

Discussion:

"NOSTRA", or "Nostradamus", was a totally unbridled sensationalist magazine publishing "news" of the most insane kind on weird topics. Example in issue #12 for June 1972:

Above: This article claims that G.T. Edwards, head professor at M.I.T. has the proof that beings exactly like us live on planet Saturn, except that they have no sex as they reproduce by parthenogenesis.

Or:

Above: This article claims that the ancient Egyptians came from outer space.

Suffice to say that fishing "cases" in this magazine does not seem to be much evidence of seriousness...

The source had low credibility, especially as no other source mentions this case, which allegedly occurs in a populated area, where at noon others should have seen and reported an extraordinary flying object.

Reliability is also in question, the witness age is not specified, "Ellena Virginia" might have been a 4 year old...

This would match with the absence of an indication of the day of observation while the report is not published very late.

As for a trivial identification, while the phone-shape may suggest a twin-rotor helicopter, the color change would remain unexplained.

Update on July 2, 2021:

With the source I now obtained, the article in L'Alsace ([lae1]), I can consider that the witness was not a child since the newspaper wrote "Mrs."

I have a more precise hour, noon past 10 minutes, a better location, with an address, but I'm not much further ahead as to an explanation.

Dornach, a former municipality, then had become part of Mulhouse. The "W" on my map shows the location of the witness, the direction of observation can be understood by the landmarks given in the report:

Evaluation:

Unexplained, but poor information and low credibility.

Sources references:

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

[lae1] * Article in the regional newspaper L'Alsace, France, June 22, 1980.
[nos1] ? Jean Marie Douchet in Nostradamus ("Nostra") magazine, France, January 21, 1982.
[goe1] * "Chronologie OVNI", web pages compiled by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 1999, was at users.skynet.be/sky84985/

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editeur:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	May 8, 2015	Creation, [goe1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	May 8, 2015	First published.
1.1	Patrick Gross	July 2, 2021	Addition [lae1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [lae1]. In the Discussion, addition of the "Update on July 2, 2021" part.

This page was last updated on July 2, 2021.