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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 of Riedisheim, on March 21, 1975:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1975-03-21-RIEDISHEIM-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper L'Alsace, in their Mulhouse edition of March 28, 1975, reported that one of their female readers, living in Riedisheim, told them of a strange display she witnessed on Friday, March 21, 1975.

Around 9:30 p.m., she had seen in the direction of Zimmersheim, high in the sky, a craft of circular shape from which emanated a sharp orange color, very bright.

Puzzled, she called her 17-year-old daughter. The machine gradually lost its color. Its spherical shape with portholes appeared more clearly, though obscure in the night sky.

Then, through the portholes, sprang a strong white glow as if it were produced by searchlights. The witness house was illuminated by this glow. After a few moments the phenomenon has stopped. The witness thought other people must have seen this too.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: March 21, 1975
Time: 09:30 p.m.
Duration: ?
First known report date: March 28, 1975
Reporting delay: 4 days.

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Riedisheim
Place: From witness house, UFO in the sky.
Latitude: 47.744
Longitude: 7.361
Uncertainty radius: 2 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: 2
Number of known witnesses: 1
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: ?
Witness(es) types: A female resident and her daughter.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: The regional Press.
Type of location: From witness house, 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: Puzzled.
Witnesses interpretation: ?

Classifications:

Hynek: NL
ALSACAT: Unidentified.

Sources:

[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":

UFO?

One of our readers, living in Riedisheim shared with us the strange spectacle she had witnessed on Friday, March 21.

Indeed, around 091:30 p.m., she saw towards Zimmersheim, high in the sky, a circular machine that gave off a bright orange color, very luminous. Intrigued, our reader called her 17-year-old daughter. The machine gradually lost its color. Its spherical pierced with portholes appeared more clearly, although obscure in the night sky. Then, still says our reader, by its portholes, a strong white glow gushed out as if it were produced by projectors. The house of our correspondent, who thinks that she was not the only witness, was lit by the glow... After a few moments the phenomena ceased.

[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":

Scan.

FRIDAY. MARCH 21, 1975: RIEDISHEIM (Haut-Rhin)

Around 9:30 p.m., a resident of Riedisheim saw high in the sky in the direction of Zimmersheim, a circular craft, producing an orange-colored very bright light. The craft gradually lost its color; it was spherical in shape, pierced with portholes from which suddenly sprang a strong white light, which lit the witness's house; a few moments later the phenomenon disappeared ("L'Alsace", for 2/18/75).

[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 this case for Friday, March 21, 1975, in Riedisheim, was reported in L'Alsace for Friday, March 28, 1975, Mulhouse issue:

UFO?

One of our readers, living in Riedisheim shared with us the strange spectacle she had witnessed on Friday, March 21.

Indeed, around 091:30 p.m., she saw towards Zimmersheim, high in the sky, a circular machine that gave off a bright orange color, very luminous. Intrigued, our reader called her 17-year-old daughter. The machine gradually lost its color. Its spherical pierced with portholes appeared more clearly, although obscure in the night sky. Then, still says our reader, by its portholes, a strong white glow gushed out as if it were produced by projectors. The house of our correspondent, who thinks that she was not the only witness, was lit by the glow... After a few moments the phenomena ceased.

Discussion:

Scan.

About Christian Valentin's book:

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

Map.

Zimmersheim is generally south-east of Riedisheim, at about 3 km. The exact location of the witness is not given, and Riedisheim seen from Zimmersheim occupies nearly 4 km in width, thus no precise direction can be given.

With the light of the UFO illuminating the witnesses' house, we can think that the UFO could not have been very far. Unfortunately, while this case is certainly strange, much information is missing, such as a duration of observation, an angular size, the mention of noise or absence thereof. And it seems that this observation was never investigated nor checked into.

Evaluation:

Unidentified.

Sources references:

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

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 January 25, 2018 Creation, [lae1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross January 25, 2018 First published.
1.1 Patrick Gross May 20, 2021 Addition [ldl1].

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This page was last updated on May 20, 2021.