ALSACAT-1996-08-01-HUSSERENLESCHATEAUX-1
In the "Banque OVNI" file of the ufologist Franck Marie, which was on the web in 2002, there was a record of an observation of August 1, 1996, at 10:20 p.m. in Husseren-les-Châteaux, of a "round object", or a "glow, passing between two mountains."
Franck Marie indicated that according to the newspaper L'Alsace for Saturday August 3, 1996, which headlined "The night of the UFOs", it was written that in "the night from Thursday to Friday, different brigades gendarmerie recorded four calls reporting to them 'the passage of UFOs' in the sky", and that at 10:20 p.m., a similar testimony had been recorded for Husseren-les-Châteaux, evoking "a ball of fire, something yellow, passing behind the hill."
The gendarmes of Wintzenheim reportedly investigated the next day, heard people from the area, took a walk in the forest, without finding the slightest clue.
| Date: | August 1, 1996 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 10:20 p.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | August 3, 1996 |
| Reporting delay: | 2 days. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Husseren-les-Châteaux |
| Place: | ? |
| Latitude: | 48.034 |
| Longitude: | 7.280 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 2 km. |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | ? |
| Witness(es) types: | ? |
| Reporting channel: | To the Gedarmerie and regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | ? |
| 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: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Possible space junk reentry. |
[Ref. fme1:] FRANCK MARIE:
1996,08,01 - 10:20 p.m. - 068 - Husseren les Châteaux 48°02 -7°16
art: - round object, gleam, passing between two mountains, sd - "*/30974
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L'Alsace
sa August 03 1996
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THE NIGHT OF THE UFOs
In the night from Thursday to Friday, several gendarmerie squads recorded four phone calls reporting "the padding of ufos" in the sky.
...
At 10:20 p.m., a similar tetimony is recorded for HUSSEREN-LES-CHATEAUX. It evokes "a ball of fire, something yellow, passing behind the hill". The gendarmes of WINTZENHEIM investigated the next day, heard the people of the area, made a patrol in the forest, without finging anything. What were they looking for? "Anything an nothing in particular".
and informed the COG od Strasbourg. The squad of Obernai heard him.
The times of the phone calls and the direections of the passing reported reveal incoherences, but "this type of event occurs once of twice a year", concludes one gendarme.
--
Nota Banque Ovni : incoherence if one stubornly considers a single phenomenon, whereas it is more logical to consider the simultanous occurrence of several distinct phenomena.
Franck MARIE, Banque Ovnibanquovni@chez.com - Copyright Franck MARIE, Banque Ovni - 971224. All rights reserved.
Banque OVNI - Box 41-92224 Bagneux Cedex - France
Central File - Case 30974
http://banquovni.chez.com/30974.htm
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On May 5, 1996, the Russian automated and unmanned logistics spaceship "Progress M-31" was launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan by the Roscosmos agency using a Soyuz-U rocket, to bring cargo to the Russian space station MIR, which was done successfully. It was deorbited at 19:44 UTC, then re-entered and burned in the atmosphere on August 1, 1996 until 20:33 UTC i.e. 09:33 p.m. local time in Alsace.
Below: Progress M52, similar to Progress M31.
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The sources are numerous, see for example planet4589.org/space/gcat/data/derived/launchlog.html or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_in_spaceflight
The most complete data I had (below) was on space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/cargoes/prm31.sht
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Unfortunately I have not yet managed to obtain its reentry trajectory.
Like ufologist Charles Garreau did in the 1950s, some ufologists still take hours of reported sightings as necessarily accurate, which is not a good idea. Most often, the witnesses do not check a watch immediately after the observation, and give a more or less rounded time, such as "08:30". Here, it is true that the time difference is quite important compared to the reentry time of Progress M-31; but there have been dozens of sightings of this event in Alsace alone, and it is not absurd to think that one or the other witness was seriously mistaken about the time.
Of course, the error can also come from the newspaper, or from a bad reading of the newspaper, which could have for example received the call of this witness at 10:20 p.m. for an earlier observation.
The information is anyway too meager at the moment to state anything with much certainty.
As there is this discrepancy, instead of noting "space junk reentry" I note out of caution "Possible space junk reentry."
Possible space junk reentry.
* = 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 6, 2022 | Creation, [fme1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 6, 2022 | First published. |
