ALSACAT-1981-09-22-RIEDISHEIM-1
The report of the National Gendarmerie written on September 23, 1981 about this observation, anonymized and published by the official service of investigation on "Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena" in 2007, as a case having taken place in Riedisheim in the Haut-Rhin, seems to be the only source available on this observation.
This report indicated that on September 23, 1981 at 6:10 p.m., a man came to the local Gendarmerie station claiming to have seen a UFO. A gendarme took his statement.
The man, a 53-year-old engineer, married, of French nationality, stated that on September 22, 1981 at 06:15 a.m., when he woke up, his attention was drawn to an unusual light.
He explained:
"Looking closer, I saw the following thing; it was an elliptical-shaped object with fuzzy contours, having its upper middle a kind of dome. The object emitted a uniform yellow light orange, between bright and matt. This object was moving northwest southeast in the direction of [-]."
"I would like to specify the following thing, at the start of my observation, I had the impression that the object was round and only took on the oval profile shortly afterwards. This phenomenon lasted about a minute."
The Gendarmerie specified that they had gone to the site and had verbally contacted many people there, none of whom witnessed this phenomenon.
| Date: | September 22, 1981 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 06:15 a.m. |
| Duration: | 1 minute. |
| First known report date: | September 23, 1981 |
| Reporting delay: | 1 day. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Riedisheim |
| Place: | At home from the bedroom. |
| Latitude: | 47.744 |
| Longitude: | 7.364 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 2 km. |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Witness(es) ages: | 58 |
| Witness(es) types: | Resident, engineer. |
| Reporting channel: | Reported to the local Gendarmerie. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From bedroom at home. |
| Visibility conditions: | End of night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | No. |
| 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: | UFO |
| Hynek: | NL or DD |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified, lack of information. |
[Ref. gen1:] GENDARMERIE NATIONALE:
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GENDARMERIE NATIONALE COMPANY OR SQUADRON UNIT CODE REPORT Nr |
REPORT |
1306727 DOCUMENT NR SHEET NR |
PRECISE NATURE OF THE FACT - REFERENCE
O B J E C T / Unidentified flying objects (U.F.O.)
WE THE UNDERSIGNED S[-] D[-] Gendarme.
GIVEN THE ARTICLE(S) [-]
REPORT THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS WE HAVE PERFORMED, ACTING IN UNIFORM AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ORDERS OF OUR CHIEFS.
THAT DAY, the twenty-third of September, nineteen eighty and one at ten to eight, report to the office of our brigade Mister M[-] F[-] residing at [-].
This person wishes to inform us of having seen on September 22, 1981 at 6:15 a.m., from the window of his bedroom, an unidentified flying object (U.F.O.) moving in the North-West-South-East direction in the direction of of [-].
According to the statements of this person, at the start of his observation, the object was round and only took on an oval profile shortly afterwards. This phenomenon lasted about a minute.
INVESTIGATION
For this purpose we hear:
H[-] S[-] 53 years old, Engineer, residing [-] born on [-] from L[-] and S[-] H[-] married of French nationality who declares to us:
""" On September 22, 1981 at 6:15 a.m., when I woke up, my attention was caught by an unusual light.
""" Looking closer, I saw the following thing; it was an elliptical-shaped object with fuzzy outlines, having a kind of dome in its upper middle. The object emitted a light yellow-orange uniform, ranging between gloss and matt. This object was moving North-West South-East in the direction of [-].
""" I would like to specify the following thing, at the start of my observation, I had the feeling that the object was round and only took on the oval profile shortly after. This phenomenon lasted about a minute.
September 23, 1981 at 6:35 p.m.:
I have read the statement above, and I abide by it and have nothing to change, add or subtract from it.
(Signed in the declarations book.)
We should mention that we went to the site where many people were contacted verbally. None of them witnessed this phenomenon.
CLOSING DATE
October 2, 1981
[Ref. gei1:] GROUPE D'ETUDES ET D'INFORMATIONS SUR LES PHENOMENES AEROSPATIAUX NON IDENTIFIES (G.E.I.P.A.N.):
SUMMARY
observation of an elliptical shape luminous object.
DESCRIPTION
On September 22, 1981 at 6:15 a.m. a witness saw from the window of his bedroom a flying object which moved along a North-West-South-East trajectory. During the observation which lasted one minute, the witness saw an object of elliptical shape with blurred contours having at its upper level a kind of dome. The object emitted an orange-yellow light. No other person in the vicinity witnessed this apparition for which we lack information.
| DATE OF OBSERVATION | 09/22/1981 |
| REGION | Alsace |
| DEPARTMENT | Haut-Rhin |
| CLASSIFICATION | C |
| UPDATE ON | 03/22/2007 |
| TYPE OF PHENOMENON | Lack of reliable information |
| DOCUMENTS | REPRT n°1109 (1981308238).pdf |
TESTIMONIES
RIEDISHEIM (68) 09/22/1981
| WITNESS | |
| DATE OF THE OBSERVATION | 09/22/1981 |
| AGE | 60 |
| GENDER | H |
| REACTION | Emotion - Curiosity, Active Interest |
| CONDITIONS | |
| ENVIRONMENT OCCUPATION OF GROUND | Artificialized territories - Urban areas |
| WETHER CONDITIONS | Sun or light night |
| LOCAL DATE AND TIME | 09/22//1981 06:15 a.m. |
| REFERENCE FRAME | Sky |
| START OF THE OBSERVATION | Conditions of appearance provoked by the witness |
| END OF THE OBSERVATION | Conditions of disappearance provoked by the phenomenon |
| LOCALIZATION | |
| HORIZONTAL DIRECTION OF OBSERVATION | 315.00 |
| NATURE OF THE OBSERVATION OR DESCRIPTIVE TERMS | Object Phenomenon |
| CHARACTERISTIC OF THE OBSERVATION | Single object |
| GLOBAL SHAPE | Other shape not in categories |
| COLOR | Orange, fire yellow, Amber |
| APPARENT SPEED | Unknown |
| NOISE | Unknown |
| EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT | Unknown - Not specified |
| NUMBER OF OBSERVED PHENOMENA | Only one |
Note: the GEIPAN ase file of course includes the [gen1] source.
[Ref. spa1:] "SPICA" UFOLOGY ASSOCIATION:
| City | Date and hour of observation | General shape Identification |
General color Hypothesis |
Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GUEBWILLER | Tuesday 22 September 1981 | elliptical (2D) Unidentified |
yellow None |
Unsolved -lack of info |
Note: SPICA noted the place as "Guebwiller" because the GEIPAN initially gave this location before changing it to "Riedisheim".
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Above: computed sky color in Riedisheim at the time of the observation.
The observation is intriguing; but there are problems of missing data, which, without being enough to advance a so-called "ordinary" explanation, do not allow to see a "good" case here:
Unidentified, lack of 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 |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | July 30, 2022 | Creation, [gen1], [gei1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | July 30, 2022 | First published. |
