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 Colmar, on August 11, 1973:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1973-08-11-COLMAR-1

Summary:

In his 1975 book about flying saucers, ufologist and newspaperman Charles Garreau wrrote that on August 11, 1973, "a luminous object" flew "above Colmar."

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	August 11, 1973
Time:	?
Duration:	?
First known report date:	1974
Reporting delay:	Day, 1 year.

Geographical data:

Department:	Haut-Rhin
City:	Colmar
Place:	Not reported, UFO in the sky.
Latitude:	48.079
Longitude:	7.356
Uncertainty radius:	5 km

Witnesses data:

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

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	?
Type of location:	?
Visibility conditions:	Night
UFO observed:	Yes
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	?
Entities:	No
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Hynek:	?
ALSACAT:	Totally insufficient information, no strangeness reported.

Sources:

[Ref. cgu1:] CHARLES GARREAU:

- On August 11, [1973,] a luminous object flies above Colmar.

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN - "BASE OVNI FRANCE":

Colmar (68) on 11 August 1973

General features

Num Base:	857
Département:	Haut Rhin (68)
Place of observation:	Colmar
Latitude:	48.083
Longitude:	+7.366
Date of observation:	11 August 1973
Hour:	Hour not known
Duration (HH:MM:SS):	N.C.
Weather:	No weather indication
Type of observation:	Visual: Distant
Nbr of witness(es):	undetermined number
Official investigation:	No

Features of the object

Nbr of object:	1
Type of object:	Not-defined
Size:	Not specified
Color:	not defined
Luminosity:	Briliant
Visual characteristics:	No indication
Speed:	not defined
Movement/Displacement:	Not specified
Object on the ground:	No
Instantaneous disappearance:	No

Observation

Observation of a luminous object flying over the city.

Sources

Soucoupes volantes, 25 ans d'enquêtes by Garreau Charles ** Mame

[Ref. tae1:] "LA TAVERNE DE L'ETRANGE" WEBSITE:

On August 11 [1973], important luminous object flies above Colmar for 10 minutes.

[Ref. spa1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "SPICA":

City	Date and hour of observation	General shape Identification	General color Hypothesis	Conclusion
COLMAR	Saturday 11 August 1973	information not communicated Unidentified	information not communicated None	Unsolved -lack of info
COLMAR	Friday 17 August 1973	information not communicated Unidentified	information not communicated None	Unsolved -lack of info

Discussion:

Like many ufologists authors of books of that time, Charles Garreau apparently did not realuze that as he introduces it, the case is completely unusable: no primary source indicated, no hour, no duration, no measures, no place, no witness information, no strangeness...

The list of what it could have been is long: alien craft, airplane, meteor, shooting star, helicopter, Chinese lantern etc.

[tae1] invents the 10 minutes duration, and [spa1] recorded the same case twice in their list due to misreaded 11 as 17, and both omit to give their source.

Evaluation:

Totally insufficient information, no strangeness reported.

Sources references:

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

[cgu1] * "Soucoupes Volantes - 25 Ans d'Enquêtes", book by Charles Garreau, Mame publishers, France, page 88, 1974.
[lcn1] * "Colmar (68) on 11 August 1973", case record by Luc Chastan, on his ufology website Base OVNI France, France, circa 2004, at http://baseovnifrance.free.fr/listgen.php?typlist=1&page=0&numobs=857
[tae1] * "Le temps des satellites et des ovnis, article on the La Taverne de l'Etrange website, France, December 15, 2007, at http://www.taverne-etrange.com/ovnis-satellites/ovnis-satellites,r81549.html
[spa1] * "DEPARTEMENT 68 - HAUT-RHIN", listing of UFO sighting reports by the Alsatian ufology group SPICA, Alsace, France, not dated, found in May 2015, at http://www.spica.org/Page_Listing_68.htm

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	March 1, 2016	Creation, [cgu1], [lcn1], [tae1], [spa1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	March 1, 2016	First published.

This page was last updated on March 1, 2016.