ALSACAT:

NATIONAL GENDARMERIE
BRIGADE: XXXXXXX
UNIT
Squad [-]
Rep. Nr 821 / 1980

SHIPPING SLIP
CONSTITUTE WITH THE ATTACHMENTS IT LISTS THE REPORT RECORDED AT THE UNIT UNDER THE NUMBER INDICATED HERE

U.F.O.
CASE H[-]
FRAME TO USE BY THE RECIPIENT
05/261980

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JUDICIAL INFORMATION:
OBSERVATION OF AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT

INVESTIGATION

• (X) PRELIMINARY
• ( ) IN THE ACT
• ( ) ON DEMAND
• Other

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DESCRIPTION OF THE ATTACHMENTS

1. Report of transportation notification and measures taken.
2. Report established by the witness
3. SITUATION MAP Nr 1
4. SITUATION MAP Nr 2

NUMBER OF COPIES / INDICATION OF RECIPIENT

• 1 Mr. the Prefect of the [Haut-Rhin] in [Colmar].
• 1 Mr. the General Cdr of the [-] Military Region at [-].
• 1 Mr. the General Cdr of the [-] Air Region at [-].
• 2 Mr. the Minister of the Armies - Head of the Gendarmerie
  and the Military Justice - Employ Information Office at ......

SEEN AND FORWARDED BY

Lt-colonel R[-]
Commanding the Gendarmerie Group of the [-]

NATIONAL GENDARMERIE
COMPANY XXXXX
Unit
Squad [-]
UNIT CODE 03548
REPORT Nr /197
821/1980

REPORT OF PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

DOCUMENT Nr
SHEET Nr

PRECISE NATURE OF THE FACTS - REFERENCE

JUDICIAL INFORMATION

OBSERVATION OF AN UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT

WE THE UNDERSIGNED J[-] J[-], Gendarme, Agent of Judicial Police; GIVEN THE ARTICLES 20 & 75 of the Penal Procedure Code; REPORT THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS WHICH WE PERFORMED, ACTING IN UNIFORM AND IN CONFORMITY WITH THE COMMANDS OF OUR CHIFS.

DATE HOUR

This day Twenty Seven of May One [thousands] and Eighty at dix o'clock in the afternoon, at the office of our squad, come Mr. D[-] A[-]. He wishes to inform us on an observation of unidentified flying object.

Immediately, we Gendarme J[-], hear:

D[-] A[-], [-] years old, Flying Mechanic Officer, civilian aviation, residing at [-] ([-]), son of E[-] and of O[-] H[-], married, without children, of French nationality, who states to us at 06:05 p.m.:

"""On Monday, May 26, 1980, at about 7 p.m., wandering, with my spouse, at the harbor [-] of [-], I noted the following facts:

"""An object of metallic aspect, was in the sky, approximatively above [-] and it did not possibly compare to an aircraft I would know. This object was at an altitude of about 200 to 300 meters and was "stationary". During the observation, it oscillated on its axis, giving the impression of a flapping as if it had difficulties of stabilization. In the observation, he showed on its top part, the shape of a cupola. Its lower part was darker almost black and intermittently a red gleam was visible there. Our observation lasted about 6 mn. At the end of the observation, the object disappeared little by little in the clouds, as if it made pauses and this at a relatively slow speed.

"""O. Q. [On questioning] I am particularly interested in these phenomenon because of my job.

"""I therefore give you the report I wrote immediately after the fact and that I forwarded to the Commander of the Airport of [-].

"""There had been no noise activity or even condensation in the proximity of the object.

"""This is all that I can tell you on this case.

On May 27, 1980, at 6:30 p.m.:

Having read the above statement, I persist in it and I have nothing to change, to add or to remove from it.

The heard person: [signature]

The Agent of judicial Police. [signature]

DATE OF CLOSURE ON 02 JUNE 1980

At the end of Mr. D[-]'s interview, we made contact with Mr. S[-] R[-], Head of the Electronic Division at [the Basel-Mulhouse] Airport. The latter, after reviewing the tape recorder radar image, informed us by telephone that at the time and in the sector concerned, there is indeed an echo, but it was drowned in the middle of the private and general navigation traffic, thus hardly exploitable.

The location of the witnesses and the area of ??observation were materialized by the witness on Situation Maps 1 & 2 (cf Attachments 3 & 4).

The technical report submitted by the witness is attached to the present proceedings under Nr. 2.

During our investigations, we also contacted the police [-] of [-] ([-]), which is territorially competent for the observation area. They informed us that no testimony had been collected from the population of [-].

Since no other witness has appeared at our Brigade, we close this proceeding on June 2, 1980.

PREPARED IN SEVEN SHIPMENTS for recipients::

The first: To Mister the Judge of the Republic at ...

The second: To Mister the Prefect of [-] at .....

The third: To Mr. the General commanding the [-] Military Region at .....

The fourth: To Mister the General commanding the [-] Air Region at .....

The fifth
the sixth: To minster the Minister of the Armies - Head of the Gendarmerie and the Military Justice - Employ-Information Office a ....

The seventh: To the archive.

Written at [-] On May 27, 80

Mister A[-] D[-].
Flying mechanic officer
[-] airlines at [-]

About: Observation of an unknown flying object.

On Monday, May 26, 80, around 19:00, I was walking with my wife on the banks of the [Rhine] (harbor area of [-]).

My attention was attracted by the flicker of a metallic-looking object with a round base, whose upper part was shaped like a dome

CONDITIONS OF OBSERVATION:

- visibility: more than 10 Km

- ceiling: 6/8 at 1800 m (information given by the control tower of [Basle-Mulhouse airport])

Lighting: good

- Haze: none

POSITION IN RELATION TO THE AIRPORT:

- In the 90 ° / 100 °

from the observation point, about 60 ° above the horizontal

estimated height 200 to 300 m above the ground

- "[-]" estimated, side [-] of [-].

SHAPE AND PROBABLE DIMENSIONS:

[Sketch with "height 2 m" and "diameter 4 to 5 meters]

OBSERVED BEHAVIOR:

- Stationary (about 3 minutes) with oscillation around a horizontal axis N / S, [?] for lack of seeing:

- the base: circular or slightly elliptical, dark in color, with peripheral redness

- the dome: silver metal color, high gloss.

The inclination on both side of the horizontal is estimated at 25 °, the rotation on itself has not been observed.

- Displacement: (about 3 minutes) In the direction of the east, with increase of altitude, still while oscillating, and loss of sight in the clouds. It was 07:12 p.m. local time.

[Sketches "Base", "cupolla"]

Remarks:

This object cannot be mistaken with:

- neither a weather balloon or a free balloon
- nor with a kite
- nor with a helicopter

The shape and the flight of this object, do not match with any of my knowledge acquired in 25 years of aeronautics

WITNESS Mrs: D[-] [signature]

A[-] D[-] [signature]

SITUATION MAPR Nr 1

[Captioned map]

Area above which the craft was observed

SECRETARY OF THE TRANSPORTS
GENERAL OFFICE OF THE CIVILIAN AVIATION
North Aerial Region
AIRPORT OF [-]

Nr 042807

At [-], on June 02, 1980

GEPAN - CENTRE NATIONAL D'ETUDES SPATIALES
18, avenue Edouard Belin
31055 TOULOUSE CEDEX

SHIPPING SLIP - MESSAGE (1)

Report form for the observation of unexplained aerospace phenomena .... 1

Checking of the identity done and observations confirmed

AIRPORT OF [-]
The engineer of the Studies and Exploitation of the Civilian Aviation
Head of the Air Traffic Subdivision

CENTRE NATIONAL D'ETUDES SPATIALES
GROUPE D'ETUDES DES PHENOMENES AEROSPATAUX NON-IDENTIFIED

REPORT FORM (STATEMENT)

Form to be used by the pilots who wish to send reports of sightings of unidentified aerospace phenomena, and by the agents of the air traffic control services who note or receive such reportsby phone, teletype or radio.

A	PILOT	CONTROLLER
B	Rank, name firstnames (rank/name)	D[-] mechanic officer
C	Company or service (company or flight control center) Address	S.A.T.T.
D	Identification of the aircraft (aircraft identification)
E	Type
F	Call number (call or flight number)
G	Start airport (departure airport)
H	Destination
I	Estimated position and heading at the start of the observation	Observation made from the ground at [-]
J	Date and UTC time of the start of the observation (Zoulou time)	17 40
K	Altitude/altimetric position at the start of the observation (flight level)	... m/ft [N/A]
L	type of flight plan	IFR () VFR ()

SECOND PAGE OF THE REPORT (STATEMENT)

M	Weather	[N/A]
N	Description of the observation / of the phenomenon / trajectory / relative position / duration / shape / color / other sketch (drawn it [sic])	grey white metallic-looking object on its top part. the to, black in its central part and orange colored with reflections on the rest. The object had the shape of a disc. duration of the phenomenon 5 minutes, mostly in stationary flight. Then fast ascent while oscillating - + height ~200 m/ground + place: [-], direction [-]
O	Ground radar	[N/A]
P	On board radar (bord radar [sic])	[N/A]
Q	CAI, TAC detector	[N/A]
R	Abnormal functioning of flight instruments (anormal [sic] function [sic] of flight instruments)	[N/A]
S	Was the observation reported by radio / phone / teletype? To what service?	Yes - Phone - Civilian service
T	Date: 05/26/80 UTC hour of the report (of the statement): 17 55	Signature of the reporter (sign [sic])

FORM TO SEND TO THE AIR TRAFFIC BASEL-MULHOUSE

These documents were composed by the GEPAN (Groupe d'Etudes des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non Identifiés)

[GEPAN Address] [unreadable]

Investigation by J. Journot

Close phenomenon in Alsace

Date: Monday, May 26, 1980

Location: Port area of the Rhine in Huningue - (68) near Basel (Switzerland) Michelin map 87 - Fold 19-20

Duration of the observation: about 6 minutes

Time: 7 p.m. local

Weather: Very good visibility (10 km) - Cloud layers at 1,800 m altitude of 6/8ths.

Mr D’s profession: Boeing 707 Flight Engineer

Number of witnesses: Two (Mr. and Mrs. 0)

It was through the HUNINGUE Gendarmerie Brigade that I learned of an event that occurred shortly after the investigation carried out during the events of April 9, 1980 in KEMBS (published in LDLN n ° 208 of October 1981).

But I could not contact the witnesses in June 1982, as they had moved. This investigation therefore lacks details.

The facts:

On Monday, May 26, 1980, around 7 p.m., Mr. and Mrs. D. were walking on the banks of the Rhine, in the port area of HUNINGUE. It was then that Mr. D's attention was attracted by the flickering of a metallic-looking "object" with a round base, the upper part of which had the shape of a dome, approximately on the German side of the Rhine (distance not specified. About 300 to 400 m).

"During this observation, this object oscillated on its axis, giving the impression of a beating, as if it had had difficulty stabilizing. At the end of the observation, the object disappeared gradually in the clouds, as if it was marking stages, and this, at a relatively slow speed" (sic).

- During the stationary phase (about 3 mn) this object oscillated around a horizontal axis North South, allowing to see:

- The base, which was circular or slightly elliptical, dark in color, with peripheral redness;

- The dome, silver metal color, high shine.

The inclination on either side of the horizontal is estimated at 25°. No spin was observed.

During the phase of displacement (approximately 3 mn) towards the East, with height gain, this object was always in oscillation, as far as the eye could see in the clouds.

Witnesses estimated the UFO at a height of 200 to 300 m. Its diameter could correspond to 4 or 5 m, with a height of about 2 m.

Mr. D., from his aeronautical knowledge in 25 years, affirms that this object cannot be confused with a currently known phenomenon.

He made a statement to the HUNINGUE gendarmerie, which opened and transmitted a procedure.

13931: 1980/05/26 19:00 3 7:35:00 E 47:36:00 N 3333 WEU FRN HRH 6:8

HUNINGUE,FR:AIRMAN+1/GND:MTLC OVOID WOBBLES/3min:RISES >>E into GERMANY:

Ref#194 LUMIERES dans la NUIT.(LDLN France) Issue No. 228 : TOWN &CITY

Huningue (68) on May 26, 1980

General features

Num Base:	2471
Department:	Haut Rhin (68)
Place of observation:	Huningue
Latitude:	47.6
Longitude:	+7.583
Date of observation:	May 26, 1980
Hour:	07:00 p.m.
Duration (HH:MM:SS):	00:06:00
Weather:	No weather indication
Type of observation:	Visual: Distant
Nbr of witness(es):	2
Official investigation:	Yes

Features of the object

Nbr of object:	1
Type of object:	Half sphere
Size:	2 to 5 meters
Color:	Metallic (silver,)
Luminosity:	Not specified
Visual characteristics:	No indication
Speed:	Motionless then slow
Movement/Displacement:	Ascending by steps
Object on the ground:	No
Instantaneous disappearance:	No

Observation

A couple walks along the banks of the Rhine in the harbor area when the man's attention is attracted by the glitter of an apparently metallic object with a round base whose top is dome-shaped on the German side of Rhine. The object oscillated on its axis. It remained stationary for about 3 minutes, and then moved towards the east for about 3 minutes uphill to finally disappear in the clouds, marking during this phase steps at slow speed. Estimated size of 4-5 m by 2 m high.

Sources

Lumières dans la Nuit issue 227/228

Sketch validated by the witness

26 May 1980 19:00

Huningue, Alsace, France

A hovering object was observed. One object was observed by two witnesses in a town for over three minutes.

Hynek rating: DD

Vallee rating: FB1

HUNINGUE(68) - 1980

Observation of an object in the shape of a cupola.

On May 26, 1980, around 7 p.m. two walkers see an unusual object in the clear sky. A navigating engineer officer, one of the witnesses describes an object of metallic appearance which on a round base, with the shape, in its upper part, of a dome of silver color. The object hovering at 200 or 300m from the ground seems to oscillate on its axis. Its lower part is darker and intermittently presents a reddish luminescence. During 6 minutes of observation, no noise and no condensation were noticed. The object disappeared in the clouds by marking successive levels. At Basel / Mulhouse airport a radar echo was recorded but drowned in the traffic of the private and general navigation and therefore not very exploitable. No other witnesses or other information was collected in France or in the German border area. This phenomenon remains unexplained.

OFFICIAL REPORT. : HERE [broken link]

MINISTERE DES TRANSPORTS : ICI [broken link]

[... other cases...]

A UFO following a car in Sélestat

In Alsace, the first unexplained and "strange" case, which was listed by GEIPAN, was observed on May 26, 1980 in the commune of Huningue in Haut-Rhin. Around 7 p.m., two walkers saw an object in the sky. One of them describes a metallic-looking material which on "a round base, has the shape, in its upper part, of a silver-colored dome." The lower part has an intermittent red light. According to him, the object was stationed "200 or 300 m from the ground" and remained there "for 6 minutes, without making any noise". It then disappeared into the clouds. For its part, Basel/Mulhouse airport reports a “recorded radar echo” but unusable due to the significant air traffic.

[... other cases...]