ALSACAT-1978-10-09-STRASBOURG-1
The newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Wednesday, October 11, 1978, published an article about sightings on October 9, 1978, of a "UFO over Strasbourg?"
The newspaper said that the Alsatian section of the French Ufology Research Circle had received the day before several matching testimonies about a luminous phenomenon in the sky of Strasbourg on Monday evening between 10:45 p.m. 10:30 p.m..
There was a testimony by a woman, amateur astronomer, Ms. W., who had a small observation equipment. She saw from her apartment of the Marne Boulevard at 10:30 p.m. a big yellow ball in the sky.
She watched it through binoculars, and the ball was joined ten minutes later by a smaller ball. Moments later, the whole set, "that Ms. W. described very accurately" - the newspaper does not give her description - "disappeared suddenly."
The newspaper indicates that almost similar testimonies were collected from two residents form the route des Romains and the Avenue des Vosges; two other witnesses, who noticed the luminous phenomenon at 10:45 p.m., had spoken of the big ball only, "which seems logical, as the little had already reached the big one at this hours."
| Date: | October 9, 1978 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m.. |
| Duration: | 10 to 15 minutes. |
| First known report date: | October 10, 1979 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, 1 day. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Strasbourg |
| Place: | In Strasbourg from Boulevard de la Marne; route des Romains; avenue des Vosges, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.588 |
| Longitude: | 7.753 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 1 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 5 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 to 5 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Young adults or adults or aged. |
| Witness(es) types: | 1 female amateur astronomer, 2 others, 2 others. |
| Reporting channel: | Alsace section of the Cercle Français de Recherches Ufologiques. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | In big city, UFO in the sky. |
| Visibility conditions: | Night |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | Yes |
| 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: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified. |
[Ref. dna1:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":
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The Alsatian section of the Cercle français de recherches ufologiques [French UFO Research Circle] received yesterday several eyewitness reports of a luminous phenomenon observed in the sky of Strasbourg on Monday evening between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m..
The most interesting of these observations comes from a woman, amateur astronomer, making her a knowledgeable witness, knowing the difference between stars and with a small observation equipment.
It was 10:30 p.m. when, from her apartment of the Boulevard de la Marne, Mrs. W. saw a big yellow ball in the sky; this ball; which she watched through binocular, was joined ten minutes later by a smaller ball; moments later, the luminous set, of which Mrs. W. gave a very accurate description, disappeared suddenly.
Almost similar testimonies were collected from two residents of the route des Romains and Avenue des Vosges; two other witnesses, who noticed the luminous phenomenon around 10:45 p.m., spoke of only the big ball; which seems logical, the small one having already reached it at that hours.
[Ref. ovi1:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "OVNI 43":
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- A U.F.O. observed above Strasbourg.
An unidentified flying object must have flown over Strasbourg on Sunday evening, estimates the Strasbourg section of the Cercle Français de Recherches Ufologiques (C.F.R.U.) after a thorough investigation.
This U.F.O. was observed by several people, including two specialists who are members of the C.F.R.U.
The first, Mr. Roland Lienhardt, was in the car with his wife at 10:30 p.m. They then saw a yellow triangular object in the sky with a black dot in its center. Mr. Lienhardt stopped his car on the side of the road and examined the object with a pair of binoculars. After half an hour, the craft, which was at an altitude of about 2000 meters, left very quickly in a zigzag.
The testimonies of other people living in the outskirts of Strasbourg who observed the same phenomenon that evening - including that of another C.F.R.U member, Mr. Catalino - were also collected.
On the other hand, the radars of the Strasbourg airport did not notice anything unusual between 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.
The investigation made it possible to determine that at this time no satellite had passed over the Strasbourg region, no weather balloon or other balloon was in the air and civil and military flights had ceased. (La Dernière Heure 07/24/78)
[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 an observation on October 9, 1978, was told like this by the newspaper "Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace" for October 11, 1978:
The Alsatian section of the Cercle français de recherches ufologiques [French UFO Research Circle] received yesterday several eyewitness reports of a luminous phenomenon observed in the sky of Strasbourg on Monday evening between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m..
The most interesting of these observations comes from a woman, amateur astronomer, making her a knowledgeable witness, knowing the difference between stars and with a small observation equipment.
It was 10:30 p.m. when, from her apartment of the Boulevard de la Marne, Mrs. W. saw a big yellow ball in the sky; this ball; which she watched through binocular, was joined ten minutes later by a smaller ball; moments later, the luminous set, of which Mrs. W. gave a very accurate description, disappeared suddenly.
Almost similar testimonies were collected from two residents of the route des Romains and Avenue des Vosges; two other witnesses, who noticed the luminous phenomenon around 10:45 p.m., spoke of only the big ball; which seems logical, the small one having already reached it at that hours.
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFODATENBANK.DE":
| Case number: | 19781010 |
| Observation hour: | |
| Observation place: | Strasbourg |
| Observation country: | France |
| Witnesses: | |
| Classification: | |
| Identification: | |
| Source: | UFO-Nachrichten Wiesbaden # 258, page 7 |
| Investigator: | |
| Status: | |
| Description of the observation: | |
| Discussion and explanation: |
[Ref. ubk2:] "UFODATENBANK":
| Case ID | 19781010 |
| Global case number: | 19781010-0001-UDB |
| Date of observation (Day) | 10 |
| Date of observation (Month) | 10 |
| Date of observation(Year) | 1978 |
| Hour of observation | |
| Zip Code | |
| Place of observation | Strasbourg |
| County | |
| Federal state | |
| Country | France |
| Witnesses | |
| Hynek Classification | |
| Vallee Classification | |
| Ruthledge Classification | |
| Henke Classification | |
| Evaluation | |
| Identification | |
| Investigations | |
| Status of the investigation | |
| Domain | UFO-Datenbank |
| Case added by | |
| Latest change by: | |
| Investigator in charge of the case | |
| Source | UFO-Nachrichten Wiesbaden Nr. 258, Seite 7 |
| State of the information | 25.04.2015 22:16 |
| Accesses to this record | 2 |
| Link to Openmap | http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Strasbourg,France |
| Link to theo bservation | http://www.ufo-db.com/WfrmSetupSichtung.aspx?uid_Sichtung=3ca5c8fa-f022-4ba5-b90e-19b6b31b2839 |
| Summary for guests | The facts and possibly other documents will be published in time. We thank you for your patience. |
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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 three places of observations are located like this:
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There are about 5 km between the two most distant.
We have here a case involving clearly at least 3 groups of most likely independent witnesses.
We also have here an observation that is not made from some "isolated area in the?countryside", but from the largest city of Alsace.
The "Cercle français de recherches ufologiques" (CFRU) was actually located in Forbach (the Moselle) and published a quarterly newsletter, "Ufologia", from 1975 to 1984. According to the catalog of the National Library of France (http: //data.bnf.com), this circle was the only officially holding the name; the one of Saint-Denis-lès-Rebais had usurped that name.
I hope I will find the original documentation of this case that seems very interesting: no question of meteor or satellite and atmospheric reentry here, the duration excludes it. Planes, balloons and other explanations seem unconvincing. How could they be described as a "big yellow ball", joined ten minutes later by a smaller one?
Unidentified.
* = 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 | July 4, 2015 | Creation, [dna1], [cvn2], [ubk1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | July 4, 2015 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | January 25, 2018 | Addition [ubk2]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | July 8, 2021 | Addition [ovi1]. |
