The Belgian UFO Wave: Close Encounter or Mass Hysteria?

The story of the sightings of triangular UFOs in Belgium that reportedly appeared in the sky in the late 1980s and early 1990s is one of the most fascinating cases in the history of unidentified flying objects. The initial reports, from the small eastern Belgian town of Eupen set the stage for a baffling series of mysterious events involving the Belgian Air Force, claims of hoax photography, and – possibly – mass delusion.

To this day, no-one seems entirely sure what actually took place in the sky over Belgium. Alien lights? The death throes of a long-dead Soviet satellite? Secret experimental aircraft? Let’s take a trip back to 1989 in an attempt to shed light on the Belgian UFO wave, a story that has baffled scientists, the military, and enthusiasts for over three decades.

In November 1989, in the quiet Belgian town of Eupen, located just a few kilometres from the German border and about 130 kilometres east of Brussels, UFOs were the last thing locals expected to see appearing in the night sky. Yet bizarrely, that’s exactly what they saw – an unidentified flying object.

And that’s the key point. It was unidentified. No-one knew what they were looking at, except almost all of the witnesses that night – perhaps as many as 150 – reported more or less the same thing: large, triangular objects with bright lights on each of the three points, and a flashing red or orange light in the middle, moving soundlessly across the night sky.

Two local policemen, Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert von Montigny, described the lights as being as bright as the floodlights on a football pitch. They radioed in to their dispatcher, Albert Creutz, to report the sighting. Not long after, Creutz contacted local airports, each reporting nothing out of the ordinary.

Further sightings were reported, by other policemen and dozens of members of the public, all describing the same thing, but were there triangular UFOs in Belgium that night?

Over the next few months, there were sporadic sightings, but the following March, the Belgian UFO wave became headline news.

In Belgium, alien lights and the Air Force rarely make comfortable bedfellows, but on 30th March 1990, that’s exactly what happened. That evening, more witnesses began reporting sightings of strange triangular objects in the night sky, consistent with previous reports from the earlier Belgian UFO wave. Most were concentrated in the area around Brussels and the town of Wavre.

Around 11pm, the Control Reporting Centre in Glons, east of Brussels, detected unidentified radar signals that matched the location and movements of the objects reported by witnesses. The radar readings were unusual, with the objects displaying erratic behaviour and rapid changes in altitude and speed.

Almost immediately, and in response to the radar detections and eyewitness reports, the Belgian Air Force scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Beauvechain Air Base to intercept and identify the unknown objects. The pilots were equipped with advanced radar systems and, it was reported, had orders to engage if necessary.

Sometime after midnight, the pilots were reported to have made visual contact with the objects, but these reports have been disputed. Some claims, none of which have been verified, suggest the UFO went from seven to ten thousand feet in just a few seconds, and in a similar timeframe descended to around 500 feet and accelerated to over 1,000 mph, all manoeuvres fatal to a human pilot and way beyond the capabilities of any known aircraft at the time.

It was claimed one of the pilots managed to get a radar lock onto a UFO, but it was later reported the lock was actually on the other F-16. The radar data remains one of the most debated aspects of the case, with some suggesting possible errors in the radar systems.

The objects reportedly continued to exhibit flight characteristics that were inconsistent with known aircraft or natural phenomena. After several attempts to intercept the UFOs, they suddenly disappeared from both the onboard and ground radar systems. The pilots returned to base around 1am without having been able to identify the objects.

News of the Belgium UFOs spread rapidly, leading to increased public interest and media coverage. The event became a central piece of evidence in the ongoing debate over the nature of the Belgian UFO wave.

The Belgian UFO research group SOBEPS (Société Belge d’Étude des Phénomènes Spatiaux, also known as the Belgian Society for the Study of Space Phenomena), began investigating the 30th March incident in detail, collecting eyewitness testimonies, radar data, and the accounts of the F-16 pilots. This incident was later included in their comprehensive reports, aimed to determine whether the sightings could be explained by known phenomena or if they pointed to something more otherworldly.

SOBEPS concluded that the UFOs in Belgium were a genuine phenomenon, with many of the sightings likely involving advanced, unidentified flying objects that could not be explained by conventional aircraft or known natural phenomena. They found the consistency of eyewitness reports, radar data, and photographic evidence compelling. They stopped short of claiming these objects were extraterrestrial but emphasised that they exhibited flight characteristics beyond current technological capabilities, leaving the nature of the objects an open question.

No-one knows what was in the sky that night over Belgium. Alien lights is one possibility, but if an enigmatic, anonymous man calling himself Patrick Maréchal is to be believed, the whole thing was an elaborate hoax.

Oddly, of the thousands of people who claimed to have seen the UFOs, there is just a single photograph in existence, taken, it was claimed, by Maréchal, and not produced publicly until July or August 1990, some four months after the incident.

Maréchal (unlikely to be his real name), revealed in an interview in 2011 that ‘we managed to trick everyone with a piece of polystyrene.’ The story goes that he and some friends painted a piece of polystyrene black, embedded a torch in each corner and hung it from the ceiling with a piece of string.

The photograph has been forensically scrutinised and debated by experts – including by scientists in the Laboratory of Astrophysics at the University of Liege – as well as sceptics, and still, no-one is completely sure if it’s real or fake.

American aviation and aerospace journalist, and noted UFO sceptic Philip Klass, published a book in 1983 called UFOs: The Public Deceived, (seven years before the Belgium UFO incident) in which he states:

Once news coverage leads the public to believe that UFOs may be in the vicinity, there are numerous natural and man-made objects which, especially when seen at night, can take on unusual characteristics in the minds of hopeful viewers. Their UFO reports in turn add to the mass excitement, which encourages still more observers to watch for UFOs. This situation feeds upon itself until such time as the media lose interest in the subjects, and then the flap quickly runs out of steam.

It’s possible that the widespread media coverage and public fascination with the early sightings in the Belgian UFO wave could have contributed to a sort of contagion effect, where people became more likely to report similar sightings, even if they were observing mundane phenomena like aircraft, stars, or atmospheric conditions.

While mass hysteria might have played a role in amplifying the number of reports of the Belgium UFOs, the combination of consistent witness accounts, radar data, and the involvement of the military suggests that there was more to the Belgian UFO wave than just social or psychological factors. SOBEPS, in its conclusions, recognised the complexity of the phenomenon and did not support the mass hysteria explanation as a primary cause.

The Belgium lights remain a mystery, but they sparked various theories about what might have been responsible for the sightings.

Extraterrestrials

Given the unusual flight characteristics, such as rapid acceleration, hovering, and silent operation, does it point to technology far beyond human capabilities? The consistency of the triangular craft descriptions and the seeming absence of identifiable conventional aircraft have gone on to fuel this particular theory.

Advanced Military Technology

Another leading theory to explain the triangular UFOs in Belgium is that the sightings were of advanced, classified military aircraft. Some have speculated that these could have been early tests of stealth technology or experimental craft and the triangular shape is consistent with some known military designs.

Atmospheric Phenomena

Some propose that the sightings could have been caused by unusual atmospheric phenomena, such as temperature inversions, which can create optical illusions or radar anomalies. This theory suggests that witnesses might have misinterpreted natural phenomena as structured, flying objects.

Mass Delusion or Misinterpretation

Was the wave of sightings a product of psychological and social factors? The initial reports, amplified by media coverage, could have led to a form of mass delusion, where people misidentified ordinary objects, like aircraft, satellites, or stars, as UFOs.

Hoaxes or Misidentification

Some sightings have been attributed to hoaxes or misidentifications of conventional aircraft, particularly helicopters. For example, the photograph taken by Patrick Maréchal was later revealed by the photographer to be a hoax, though this admission came years after the events and has been the subject of debate.

Each of these theories has its supporters and detractors, and the true nature of the objects seen during the Belgian UFO wave remains a topic of conjecture and controversy. No definitive explanation has been universally accepted, leaving the events shrouded in mystery.

The Belgian UFO wave remains one of the most intriguing and well-documented UFO phenomena in history. Despite extensive investigations and plenty of theories, the true nature of the sightings continues to elude definitive explanation. The mystery of what truly occurred in the skies over Belgium in late 1989 and early 1990 endures, a stark reminder that not all questions have easy answers.