ALSACAT-1975-05-08-ECKWERSHEIM-1
The regional newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Saturday, May 10, 1975, reported an observation of Thursday, May 8, 1975, at 01:45 a.m. in Eckwersheim, wondering if it was a flying saucer.
The newspaper said that nine young people said to have observed one in the sky.
However, in the archives collected in the 1970s of the ufology group "Lumières Dans La Nuit", we find a case dated May 8, 1975, with the same newspaper as a source, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, but from May 8, 1975, and the article reportedly stated the following:
Around 1:45 a.m., nine young people were walking in the forest, divided into two groups. Suddenly, their attention was attracted by a light illuminating a stable located on rue du Moulin. By following the light ray with their gaze, they saw a luminous, immobile object, with a large headlight in front, illuminating with very strong brightness.
One of the groups observed it for 1 to 2 minutes, while the other, perhaps having noticed it later, only saw it for around 30 seconds.
The object then moved, the light projected by the headlight oscillated, then the object made a semi-circle first towards the north, then towards Strasbourg and it "disappeared" quickly, perhaps in the clouds, the ceiling not being very high.
For some, it had a flattened round shape, for others, a flattened oval shape. In addition to the headlight, it had portholes, said one witness, arranged in a semi-circle reminiscent of the shape of "saucers". Another witness said he noticed red flashing lights.
As the object departed, it emitted a whirring sound, the sound of a relatively faint jet engine.
The newspaper reportedly indicated that other people had called them to report, as early as 1:45 a.m., that they had noticed this luminous phenomenon near Vendenheim.
| Date: | May 8, 1975 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 01:45 a.m. |
| Duration: | 1 minute. |
| First known report date: | May 8, 1975 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Eckwersheim |
| Place: | Outside near a stable of rue du Moulin. |
| Latitude: | 48.682 |
| Longitude: | 7.689 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 200 m |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 9 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 to 9 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Young. |
| Witness(es) types: | ? |
| Reporting channel: | The regional Press. |
|---|---|
| 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: | Flying saucer. |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Possible helicopter. |
[Ref. dna2:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":
Did an unidentified flying object again cross the Alsatian sky? This is the question that we can ask today with the testimony of nine young people who claim to have seen a "flying saucer" in the sky of Eckwersheim on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, at 1:45.
[Ref. aldl:] MRS. GUEUDELOT, "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT" ARCHIVE:
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MAY 8, 1975.-
ECKWERSHEIM. - (68)
Hour: about 1:45
Nine young people [were] walking in the forest divided into two groups. Suddenly, their attention was attracted by a light illuminating a stable located on rue du Moulin. Following the light ray with their gaze, they saw a luminous object with a large headlight in front, illuminating with very strong brightness. The object was still. One of the groups observed it for 1 to 2 minutes, while the other, perhaps having noticed it later, only saw it for around thirty seconds. Then the object moved: the light projected by the headlight oscillated, then the object made a semi-circle, first towards the NORTH, then it took the direction of STRASBOURG. It disappeared quickly, perhaps into the clouds, the ceiling not being very high.
DESCRIPTION: For some a flattened round shape, for others a flattened oval. In addition to the headlight, like portholes, said a witness, arranged in a semi-circle reminding of the shape of "saucers". Another noticed red flashing lights. As the object departed, it made a whirring sound, the sound of a relatively faint jet engine. Other people called to tell us, at 1:45 a.m., that they had noticed this luminous phenomenon near VENDENHEIM.
"DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE" for MAY 8, 1975.
[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 of Thursday, May 8, 1975, in Eckwersheim was posted like this in the newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Saturday, May 10, 1975:
Did an unidentified flying object again cross the Alsatian sky? This is the question that we can ask today with the testimony of nine young people who claim to have seen a "flying saucer" in the sky of Eckwersheim on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, at 1:45.
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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 eastern part of Rue du Moulin in Eckwersheim is close to fields; a helicopter could have landed there.
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Still indicative of a possible helicopter: the big white headlight, the red flashing lights, and of course the sound.
Vendenheim is Southeast of Eckwersheim, Strasbourg is South-Southeast of Eckwersheim.
Possible helicopter.
* = 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 20, 2015 | Creation, [dna1], [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 20, 2015 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | September 6, 2023 | Addition [ald1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [ald1]. in the Discussion, "The incredibly brief newspaper article does not allow to understand what would have been seen." removed. Evaluation changed, was "Totally insufficient information." |
