At approximately 05:30 p.m., Olivier C, mason, aged 29, was returning from work driving a van. He was along the Manages train station, and saw what he described as a powerful and motionless white ball, in the north, towards the chemical complex of Feluy.
The ball had the apparent dimensions of a quarter of the Moon but it was more luminous. That did not really impress him and he went home.
At 06:50 p.m., he takes again the van to bring it back it to his brother who resides in Familleureux. While coming out of the way which leads to his own home, he sees right in front of him, coming from the North-West, at a 30° elevation, a cigar-shaped object with white lights which decreased in intensity then increased again slowly, and a flickered red light.
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Above: Shape, color and placement of the lights according to the sketch done for this phase of his sighting by Olivier C. for SOBEPS.
He continued his travel while keeping the object in sight up to the crossroads between the Ferrer street and Haveau street. There, he stopped, went out of the van and kept on watching the object, which had an apparent size of 7 centimeters at arm's length and seemed to move, very slowly, towards Feluy which is in his North-East.
He then takes a 12x50 binocular in the van for better observing it. With the binocular, he thinks he distinguishes a horizontal line in the higher part of the object, “as if it was the boundary line of a cupola.” The object nevertheless has the same gray color overall. He has the impression that the craft is searching for something because its movements seem undecided.
At the end of some ten minutes, he resumes his travel towards Familleureux. Returning by car from his brother's, he again passes at the crossroads between the Ferrer and Haveau streets, a quarter of hour later, and sees that the object is then above the wood of Feluy, still at the same distance and the same altitude.
It is now between 07:15 p.m. and 07:30 p.m., and as he arrives close to the Looza Bridge, he sees two people who are looking towards the sky. He pulls out, stops his engine and gets out of the car (point J on the map).
Then, he finds himself right underneath a huge craft, rhombus-shaped, larger than a football field, of which he clearly sees the contours and which seems to him to be at a distance of 200 meters.
The craft has white headlights; which decrease and increase in intensity, and like a rotating light located in front of the structure in the direction of its displacement. The craft also has dark green lamps on its inferior surface, and when the white lamps decreased and the red lamp died out a short moment, the green lamps partly lit the lower part of the craft, which enabled him to see that it had a surface which was not smooth but which resembled relief-patterned sheet “or like galvanized rafters, a little like sheets used for the slopes for cars on the car transport lorries.”
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Above: Appearance of the craft according to the sketch done for this phase of his sighting by Olivier C. for SOBEPS.
The craft emits a its deaf person, like that of a washing machine, which varied in intensity, but he was not sure that this was at the same time as the white lights varied. It seemed to him that the sound came from everywhere at the same time.
Olivier C. was not afraid and even wanted to make a sign to the craft as for saying: “I saw you, do you see me? Take me along...” But he did not dare to, for fear of looking silly to the other people on the bridge.
The craft moved towards the east, the direction of his home, but not in straight line, “it did this as a car which drives out back from one side to the other.” He gets in his car and drives away to go alert his wife. He said: “I think that she would have had the time to smoke a cigarette at ease before the craft passed above her, so slow it flew.”
He starts the car and made a half-turn, looking up to the sky through the windshield, but the object is not there anymore, and he would not see it again.
SOBEPS investigators noted that it is not obvious to carry out reliable estimates, but they thought that the object, at the time when it passed closest to this witness, was to be 150 meters by 75 meters, of a thickness around 25 meters, and that it flew at a height between 80 and 100 meters.
Michel P. is home in Louvière. He hears cars honking, which would prove to be produced by cars obstructed by a truck collecting old clothes for a charity operation.
He looks at the sky and sees, through a break in the clouds, a triangular arrangement of three white fires and a red light. He barely distinguishes the shape but it vaguely evokes to him that of a “cigar”.
This object goes towards the North-East in the direction of the district of Tivoli, he observes it during some twenty seconds, then he immediately phones Robert S., of the City Astrid, because he knows that Robert S. is interested in UFOs.
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Above: Michel P is at point A on the map.
Lucia R. was returning from the children doctor with her daughter Eve, aged 6.5. They were in the car on the N55 road, coming from Binche and going in the direction to Roeulx.
When they are at approximately 500 meters from the turnpike with motorway E 19, Lucia R. slightly raised her eyes, because her glance was attracted towards something luminous; which was on her right. She then sees there, at the same time as her daughter does, an object of triangular form which was motionless above a thicket, at 50 meters from her. (Point B on the map.)
The object seemed tilted with 45°, showing only the lower part of its structure. This structure was slightly luminous and was detached clearly on the sky which was not black yet. The object carried three fixed white headlights in its three corners, which were rounded. A large red light seemed to bump from the object, resembling a half-sphere of a very sharp red, which made her think of “a hotplate in vitroceramics.”
This red light seemed in rotation, according to the displacement of the different intensities of its red color.
The structure of the object had a “grainy” aspect.
She had also the furtive impression of one more light, or that one or several of the white lights changed.
Her daughter could observe longer than she could, and stated that there was an amber light separated from the others, which was about half the height of a tree above the thicket.
She could not stop at this place because other vehicles followed, and could observe the thing only a few seconds, but she stated that she caught a precise memory of it.
Lucia R. engages then in the motorway strip on the E 42 which leads to Louvière, and she loses sight of the object. She sees it again a little further (Point C on the map), while distinguishing like a large luminous point on her left which skirted the E 19 motorway to Brussels.
She stated that there were now two objects, and that one of them then crossed the motorway from her right-hand side to her left-hand side, and this, at the level of the motorway station of Houdeng. The objects moved slowly.
She then entered the street connecting Houdeng to Besonrieux, her place of residence, and after the motorway station, she sees again the two triangles, still seeing only their lower surface (Point D on the map).
The two triangles had slowed down and moved at the same speed as she did, i.e. 60 to 70 km/h. They were, at this time, halfway between the E 10 motorway and her, i.e. within 350 meters from her in her estimate, and they appeared to him to be a little above the lighting of the motorway in elevation, at a height of approximately half of that of a lighting post, that is to say between 20 and 30 meters.
Arriving towards her home, Lucia R. hurries to find her husband, Pierre P. and their other daughter, Caroline, aged 12. She arrives precisely at 06:29 p.m. (Point E) and immediately alerts them, so they come outside in their garden which shows towards Feluy.
From there, the family looks at the two triangular objects flying together almost overhead at a 150 meters height.
Their shape is still triangular, the corners are rounded, there is a white light at each corners and a red light flickering in the center, and the flew in the direction of the zoning of Feluy, towards the North-East, while following the E 10 motorway.
They hear a weak whirring sound coming from the object, and Pierre R. said that this sound resembled that of a distant ultralight plane. He and his daughter Caroline say that they saw an amber light beside each white light, while Lucia R. indicates that she did not notice that. Lucia R. and Pierre P. both made a sketch of what they saw there.
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Above: Reconstitution on the left, according to a sketch by Lucia R., on the right, according to a sketch by Pierre P.
Note: the contours, as well as the position, sizes and colors of the light, are such as on the sketches made by these witnesses for the SOBEPS investigators. Lucia R. reported a granulous texture of the surface of the UFO. The color of the sky is such as it was at this date, hour and place. The respective sizes and the color of the machine are fictitious.
At the time when the two triangles moved away slowly in direction from Feluy, a third triangle passed; which came from the same direction.
They remained there to observe the sky up to 07:27 p.m., and say that they saw about fifteen more objects passing by, but at a higher altitude, of which the investigators suspect they could have been ordinary planes. These other objects followed the same trajectory on an axis going to the north-east.
The investigators heard other people of the district, i.e. Mignaut street, who saw something, but thought that they were only planes or helicopters and did not pay particular attention to it. It only revealed that they did not hear any sound.
Lucia R. phoned the La Louvière police precinct, and the gendarmes there told her of the address and phone number of the SOBEPS, that she then contacted.
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Above: Lucia R. is initially at point B on the map, coming from Binche on N 55 and 500 meters before the E 19 motorway turnpike. The UFO is on her right. She takes the E 19, loses sight of the object and finds it in C, she is on the E 42. The UFO, accompanied by a second one, crossed the E 42. She went down from the E 42 and took the street D which goes to Besonrieux where she lives, at the bottom left corner of the E, and observes with her family from her garden there two UFOs and more thereafter going towards Feluy. Her travel is marked by the white line, the UFO path more or less follows the red dotted line, going towards Feluy in direction of the North-East.
The same day at an unspecified hour, Jonathan F had left motorway A 501 and was close to the Boël factories in the northern part of Louvrière, going to turn left to join City Astrid where he lives.
He then saw what he could not better describe than a kind of illuminated triangular object that came from the direction of the commercial complex Cora-City in his south and moved towards City Astrid. At an arm's length, the object was approximately 10 centimeters, it appeared to fly rather low. The hour is not specified, but following testimony could be related.
This witness is at point F of the map.
In the district of Michel P., people know his interest for UFOs: he had seen one in 1989. Between 06:15 p.m. and 06:30 p.m., Michel P. phones Michel S. and tells him that a UFO has just been seen in the direction of the north-north-east, moving towards the City Astrid district.
Just after this phone call, Michel S.'s son knocks on the door of Robert S. on the opposite side of the same street, and tells him that there is something odd in the sky.
Robert S. grabs his video camera, and goes outside just in time to see what he described as a kind of large luminous roll that he saw in his northwest towards the end of the street of the mimosas, and which seemed to move towards Bésonrieux, thus going from the south-east towards the northwest.
Robert S. remains there a while, then contacts his friend Michel G., and they leave together towards the district of La Petite Suisse in Bésonrieux (just a bit in the South-east of point E on the map, where the family of Lucia R. observes UFOs pass by).
At this location, between 08:00 p.m. and 08:30 p.m., they see to helicopters fly by. They easily identified them as helicopters, by their way of flying, their position lights, and their noise.
The two helicopters appear to be above the confluence of the Center Canal and the new canal in construction, above the motorway station, and they then leave towards the motorway.
At one time between 06:30 p.m. and 06:40 p.m., Michel S. left his home in the City Astrid, district of Croyère, accompanied by the son of his girlfriend, Olivier W., aged 12. It is Olivier who noticed an object of large size which came from above the Boël factories in the South-South-West of them, and flew towards the north-north-east. The object seemed square, with a thickness, rounded corners, carrying four white lights one in each angle and a larger red light in the center, which flickered rather quickly.
The object moved relatively quickly, and emitted a sound described as a humming. Its mass was dark but was clearly distinguished under the sky that was cloudy at places.
These witnesses are at point G on the map.
Benoit C, a SOBEPS member, is an executive in an important distribution company, and at 06:35 p.m. that day he was returning from work and had just left the E 10 motorway at the Nivelles Southern exit to engage on the N 6 road towards Arquennes and Manage, because the motorway was jammed due to construction work.
At approximately 500 meters from the bridge above the old canal (point K), he notes heavy air traffic, with two or three planes which moved towards Nivelles, like in landing approach of Zaventem, with lights on.
He also saw three lights laid out in triangle, with a fixed light in the middle, which advanced parallel to his direction, but in opposite direction from him and on the left side of the roadway.
Benoit C. is puzzled and pulls up on the edge of the road. He thinks that it would be wise to stop some other motorists to get additional witnesses, but he gave up when he realized that he was likely to cause a pile-up.
In the intense car traffic, with much of noise from the cars, he could not distinguish if the craft he saw emitted a sound.
He continued to observe the craft, which he located at approximately 150 meters from him and of which he estimated the length as more or less 50 meters, noting that in the dark, this estimate was difficult. It flew at some 30 km/h and was from time to time hidden behind one or the other tree.
At one time, he saw a very powerful projector directing towards the ground, but he could not see on the ground from where he was.
The projector produced a white cone of bright light, which lasted three seconds. The machine which still flew at the same speed was finally hidden by trees.
Veronique B observed a large white gleam which was completely motionless in the direction of her northwest. She would state that this gleam was larger than that of public lighting, as large as the Moon. It remained motionless during 5 minutes, then left slowly towards the north of her position, in the direction to Bésonrieux.
The last known witness of the evening at this location is brought by Philippe R., employee, who was driving alone at approximately 09:30 p.m. at a speed of some 80 km/h on the road connecting Ecaussinnes to Braine-le-Compte. While arriving at the locality “Barrière d'Ecaussinnes” (Red dot on the map below), he was intrigued by what he initially thought to be the moon, because it was same dark matt yellow color as the Moon. But it was smaller than the Moon.
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He then looks at the road one moment, then looks at again towards the right in direction of this moon. But instead of a single light, there are now three white headlights forming an equilateral triangle upright on its basis.
He again looked at the road, while slowing down, then again looked towards his right. He sees that at the same place, there is now a strange object that he compared to “a broad tire placed flat like a buoy, the shape of a cigar.”
He very clearly sees the right side, round like a tire, and estimates that this craft was to be between 300 and 500 meters from him, but he is not sure because he did not have any reference point. The craft is at an elevation he estimated as 30°. The craft is three times longer than it is thick and seems to him very massive and heavy.
He sees that it has five or six portholes of a very luminous sharp yellow, and that on the top and the lower part of this line of port-holes, there are small white and sharp lights like a light-marking. All the lights seemed motionless, like the craft was.
Philippe R. continued to drive while trying to look at the craft, leaning towards his windshield, this on approximately one kilometer.
At one time he has the impression that on the level of the small higher lights a little on the left of the machine, there was a glare of light, “like a reflection on a diamond”, as if a searchlight had swept towards him and dazzled him a short moment.
Right after he briefly looked at the road, the glare had disappeared and there was at its place a powerful ray of light which seemed to come out of the top of the object and lit the clouds above it. The beam was conical, open upwards with a height of approximately three times the thickness of the craft.
During the sighting, he had the uneasy feeling that “someone” was going to abduct him, and he was very impressed.
He told of these events to his wife and his father-in-law, who was a SOBEPS member, and persuaded him to forward his written testimony to this association, which Philipp R. did.
Philipp R. concludes this letter as follows:
“I admit that before I was indeed very skeptical as for the UFO phenomenon and that I tended to make fun about it. Now I am disturbed enough and full with questions as for the thing. I can affirm that the phenomenon that I saw does not correspond to anything conventional.”
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Above: Shape, color and placement of the lights and projector according to the sketch by Philippe R. for SOBEPS.
