ALSACAT-1998-03-29-STRASBOURG-1
In an interview with the regional daily newspaper "Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace" for Sunday, April 12, 1998, Ludovic, from Nantes, then aged 22, investigator in Strasbourg for the "l'Observatoire National de Discernement des Enigmes Scientifiques" (ONDES) reports briefly that he saw a green light above Strasbourg on March 29, 1998, at 09:37 p.m., for a second. The green light passed over the city center and then branched off at right angles at high speed.
The case was apparently reported in the ufology magazine "Lumières Dans la Nuit" #350 in 1998, indicating that the witness was at his window when he observed a green light plunging vertically to the ground at high speed to suddenly veer at a right angle to the horizontal, still extremely quickly, all in a second.
| Date: | March 29, 1998 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 09:37 p.m. |
| Duration: | 1 second. |
| First known report date: | April 12, 1998 |
| Reporting delay: | 2 weeks. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Strasbourg |
| Place: | From or neear the city, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.578 |
| Longitude: | 7.734 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 10 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | 22 |
| Witness(es) types: | Paranormal investigator. |
| Reporting channel: | Interview to the regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | Possibly big city, 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: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Probable bouncing shooting star. |
[Ref. pgs1:] MYSELF IN 2001:
Again an undocumented case. There is only a mention during an interview of an amateur ufologist, in the regional daily newspaper "Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace" of Sunday 12, April 1998.
The interviewed person mentions that he saw a green light above Strasbourg on March 29, 1998, during one second. The green light flew above the center of the town then turned right at a sharp angle and at very high speed.
|
Originating from Nantes, West of France, Ludovic is 22 years old and investigator in Strasbourg for the National Observatory for Studies of Scientific Enigmas (Tel.: 03 88 35 38 35). Since many years already, he is interested in strange aerial phenomena. - What started this passion? - Actually I am one of the rare persons who came to this discipline without having seen something before. I simply wanted to check out facts by myself. Now, I have more questions than answers. - But, in Strasbourg, you recently observed something strange. - On March 29, at 09:37pm, I spotted during one second a green lights flying over the center of the city, and take a sharp turn to the right at a very high speed. In Nantes, in approximately a year, we gathered a hundred cases, including 35 very recent cases. On each occasion, we investigated, contacted the police stations... - Is your goal to check or to prove? - First we want to detect the hoaxes. It is not simple. Do not believe that we are easily contacted. Very often, people think we are military people, or government services, they sometimes believe we are the IRS. - Are there many sightings on April 1st? - It is true that we often believe that jokes are made. Even our close relationship do not take us seriously sometimes. Or, they just do not care at all. - Are there reasons to worry about it? - There are serious cases of phenomenon which should really worry us. As a matter of fact, there is a governmental service, the SEPRA, and they investigate all that stuff very seriously. - What is you motivation when you investigate? Scientific curiosity, mysticism, sheer curiosity? - It is interesting to follow a case, to meet people, despite the fact that most of the time people slam their doors at our face. There will always be skeptics. - What is your opinion on people like Jean-Claude Bourret? (*) - It is just crap. He compiles old observations, and presents them again. - How do you explain the phenomenon you observe? - This is not just about little green men. There are theories about parallel universes, living masses of energy, military prototypes. Our goal is not to give an interpretation, but to observe and analyze. |
(*) One of the most popular news presentator on the biggest French TV channel some 10 years ago, expressed publicly his interest in the UFO phenomenon and made some money writing books, which, as the interviewed person states, are mostly cases compilations with no new information. He quickly became the laughing stock, the whole nation ridiculed him. The average French, if you mention UFOs, will laugh and tell you: "Ah, Jean Claude Bourret, the little green men..."
Jean Claude Bourret's career is totally burned out now, both as TV presenter and author of UFO books. No French media personality will ever even mention a belief in UFO reality now.
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN - "BASE OVNI FRANCE":
General features
| Num Base: | 3091 |
| Département: | Bas Rhin (67) |
| Place of observation: | Strasbourg |
| Latitude: | 48.583 |
| Longitude: | +7.75 |
| Date of observation: | 29 mars 1998 |
| Hour: | Heure non connue |
| Duration (HH:MM:SS): | 00:00:01 |
| Weather: | Beau temps, ciel clair |
| Type of observation: | Visual: Distant |
| Nbr of witness(es): | 1 |
| Official investigation: | No |
Features of the object
| Nbr of object: | 1 |
| Type of object: | Non-défini |
| Size: | ponctuel |
| Color: | Vert |
| Luminosity: | Not specified |
| Visual characteristics: | No indication |
| Speed: | Extrèmement rapide |
| Movement/Displacement: | Right angle turn |
| Object on the ground: | No |
| Instantaneous disappearance: | No |
Observation
Le témoin est à sa fenêtre quand il observe une lumière verte plongeant à la verticale vers le sol à très grande vitesse. Brusquement cette dernière vire à angle droit et part à l'horizontale toujours extrêmement rapidement.
Sources
Lumières dans la Nuit numéro 350
[Ref. spa1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "SPICA":
| City | Date and hour of observation | General shape Identification |
General color Hypothesis |
Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STRASBOURG | Sunday 29 March 1998 at 09:37 p.m. | ball, balloon or melon (3D) Unidentified |
green Artificial reentry |
Strong hypothesis |
|
The green color, the short observation duration of one second, make me think it was a shooting star.
Usually, meteors and shooting stars move in a straight line without turn. But sometimes a small meteor or shooting star coming at a low angle onto the upper layers of the atmosphere are literally bouncing back to the outer space. No angle of arrival precisely measured is given here, the vertical dive could be caused by perspective for an object going away or moving towards the observer in the distance. So we will not know if it was that or not, but it seems likely.
Probable bouncing shooting star.
* = 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 | February 27, 2016 | Creation, [pgs1], [lcn1], [spa1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 27, 2016 | First published. |
