ALSACAT-1975-02-12-LANDSER-1
An article in the regional newspaper L'Alsace, Mulhouse issue for February 16 to 17, 1975, spoke of a possible UFO in the sky of Landser.
The newspaper said that a UFO had flown over Landser on Wednesday evening, February 12, 1975, seen by a young local man, D. K., who "cannot affirm" it was a UFO but did see at 07:45 p.m. as he was going to meet friends who live in the subdivision, a bright light:
"It was moving at about 4 meters above the ground horizontally. I thought it was a shiny cable, but there was no cable at this location. The "object" could have been of 20 centimeters and lighted on fifty centimeters. Its shape was indefinable, because it was too bright. The "light" traveled a hundred meters, stopped a moment in front of the subdivision, returned the other way, then disappeared..."
| Date: | February 12, 1975 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~07:45 p.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | February 16, 1975 |
| Reporting delay: | 4 days. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Landser |
| Place: | From outside in Landser, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 47.688 |
| Longitude: | 7.391 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 400 m |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Teenager or young adult. |
| Witness(es) types: | Male resident. |
| Reporting channel: | The regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From outside in or near small city, UFO in the sky. |
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| 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: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Maybe a UFO. |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified, insufficient information. |
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
UFOs are divisive of the opinion: there are those who believe and those who do not. Yet, many people say in the four corners of the country, that they had seen one day one of these curious objects. Did one of them fly above Landser Wednesday night? A young local man, D. K., cannot claim it. Anyway, he saw, around 07:45 p.m. as he was going to visit some friends who live in the lot, a bright light: "It was moving at about 4 meters above the ground, horizontally. I thought it was a cable reflection but there was no cable there. The "object" might have been 20 centimeters and lighted on about fifty centimeters. Its shape was indefinable, because it was too bright. The "light" traveled a hundred meters, stopped for a while in front of the lot, went back in the other direction, then disappeared..."
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that the case of Wednesday, February 12, 1975, was reported as follows in the newspaper L'Alsace for February 16-17, 1975, in the Mulhouse issue:
UFOs are divisive of the opinion: there are those who believe and those who do not. Yet, many people say in the four corners of the country, that they had seen one day one of these curious objects. Did one of them fly above Landser Wednesday night? A young local man, D. K., cannot claim it. Anyway, he saw, around 07:45 p.m. as he was going to visit some friends who live in the lot, a bright light: "It was moving at about 4 meters above the ground, horizontally. I thought it was a cable reflection but there was no cable there. The "object" might have been 20 centimeters and lighted on about fifty centimeters. Its shape was indefinable, because it was too bright. The "light" traveled a hundred meters, stopped for a while in front of the lot, went back in the other direction, then disappeared..."
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It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left) , ref. [cv2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.
I think Alsatian ufologists and generally people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.
The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)
The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!
The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com
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The big problem here, as often with Press reports, is the inability to understand the sizes data.
Was this "UFO" was actually 20 centimeters long? Was this a comparison "at the length of the extended arm?" Strictly speaking, the statement by the witness that he had first thought of a reflection on a cable suggests that it was something of a size that can make you think this, so the usual "meteor" for example comes to mind. But then again: a meteor does not pause and make a U-turn.
Unidentified, insufficient information.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 17, 2015 | Creation, [lae1], [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 17, 2015 | First published. |
