ALSACAT-2002-07-05-MULHOUSE-2
Via the newspaper L'Alsace of July 10, 2002, I and another local member of the French Federation of Ufology (F.F.U.) launched a call for witnesses for a sighting in our area on July 5, 2002 at 10:30 p.m. We had received several other testimonies in return, some of which may relate to the sighting in question, others clearly relating to earlier sightings in our Haut-Rhin department.
Following this call for witnesses, the secretariat of the F.F.U. noted, among other reports, the call of July 10, 2002 from a lady of Mulhouse, whose testimony we collected on site.
Under cover of anonymity, she explained to us at her home, the place of the sighting, that on July 5, 2002, around 10:35 p.m., she had just turned off the television set after watching until the end the soap opera "L'Eté Rouge" on the Swiss-Roman channel.
As the day had been hot, she had left the right window pane open. This window was behind and to the right of her TV set, at a distance of about 40 cm. She was sitting in front of the TV and got up to go press the standby button.
Immediately after turning off the set, she moved to her right, grabbed the crank that lowered the exterior wooden blind. This blind was open almost the full height of the window, with a portion obscuring the view to the outside at the top of the window frame for about 30 to 35 cm, from the top.
As she began to crank this awning, her attention was caught by a strong light moving very slowly across the sky in front of her, slightly to her left, coming from the left of her field of vision and heading to her right.
As she looked more closely at it, she realized that it was made up of three yellow lights arranged in a triangle, with a fourth light in the center of the other three, which was shaped like a ring of white light, much like a neon ring from a store sign. The white ring light was very powerful, it was not like a solid round light but more like a streamed neon tube arranged in a circle.
She was able to make out the triangular shape of the object's body. The three yellow lights were located precisely on the three corners of the triangle, and the white "neon" was in the center of the triangle.
There was no contrail, smoke or noise throughout the sighting, which did not exceed five or six seconds.
The sky was very clear, a few stars were visible.
She had first seen the object when it had come from the left side of the sloping roof of the house which was a little to the left and across the street; she had lost sight of it when he was hidden by the corner of the wall at the left end of the house further to the right, also on the other side of the street.
Between these two houses opposite, the distance is 20 meters.
Relative to where she was standing, the roof of the left house was 30 meters away from her, and the far left corner of the wall of the right house was about 15 meters from her.
The horizontal viewing angle between the roof of the left house and the corner of the left exterior wall of the right house is approximately 40°. The object was moving at a vertical angle of 40° from the horizon.
The apparent angular size of the object was equivalent to approximately 2 cm estimated with outstretched arm. She could not estimate the distance that separated her from the object but at the time, she had thought that it must be directly above the Gare du Nord, which is about 600 meters from her home.
Note that the surname, first name and address of the witness were known to us, I will not publish them since the witness has requested that her anonymity be respected.
My ufologist colleague who had collected this testimony had taken several pictures of the scene showing the view that the witness, standing behind a window, had at the time of the observation. On one of them, he had indicated what the witness said she saw:
|
| Date: | July 5, 2002 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 10:35 p.m. |
| Duration: | 5 to 6 seconds. |
| First known report date: | July 10 and August 3, 2002 |
| Reporting delay: | 5 days. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Mulhouse |
| Place: | From inside home at known address in the "La Cité" district. |
| Latitude: | 47.753 |
| Longitude: | 7.319 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 200 m. |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Adult. |
| Witness(es) types: | Female resident. |
| Reporting channel: | To the FFU after call for witness in the regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From inside home, house in city. |
| Visibility conditions: | Night, clear sky. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | No. |
| UFO departure observed: | No. |
| 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. pgs1:] MYSELF AND ANOTHER LOCAL UFOLOGIST:
Through the regional newspaper L'Alsace for July 10, 2002, a local member like me of the Fédération Française d'Ufologie (French Federation of Ufology, FFU) had a call to witness published about a sighting report in our area, the Haut-Rhin department:
|
Following this call to witnesses, about this case, the FFU secretary had received a dozen phone calls, all without direct connection with the sighting report that prompted our call to witnesses.
|
|
During my meeting with Mr. [Investigator 1], delegate investigator of [Ufology Group] for the Haut-Rhin department, assisted by Mr. Patrick GROSS, founding member of the FFU, I accepted, under cover of the anonymity guaranteed by this association governed by the Law of August 15, 1901 on non-profit associations, and supplemented by the CNIL Law of January 7, 1978, to bring to the attention of [the group of ufology], the following facts:
On Wednesday, July 10, 2002, I called [Groupe d'ufologie] by telephone, following the article that had appeared in the regional newspaper "L'Alsace" that same morning.
On July 5, 2002, around 10:35 p.m., I had just turned off the television set where the soap opera 'L'Eté Rouge' had just ended, which was airing on the TSR-1 channel and which I had watched until the end.
During the day, it had been hot, so I had left the right pane of the window open. This window is behind and to the right of my TV set, at a distance of about 40cm. I was sitting in front of the television and I got up to come and press the standby button on the television.
Immediately after turning off the radio, I moved to my right and grabbed the crank that lowered the exterior wooden blind. The blind was open almost to the full height of the window and part of it blocked the view outwards at the top of the window frame for about 30-35 cm from the top.
As I started to crank the blind, my attention was caught by a strong light moving very slowly across the sky in front of me, slightly to the left, coming from the left of my field of vision and heading to the right.
As I looked more closely at the object, I realized that it was made up of three yellow lights arranged in a triangle. A fourth light sat in the center of the other three and was shaped like a ring of white light, much like a neon ring from a store sign. The white light from the ring was very powerful. It was not like a full round light but more like a neon tube streamer arranged in a circle.
I was able to make out the triangular shape of the object's body. The three yellow lights were located precisely on the three corners of the triangle and the white 'neon' was in the center of the triangle.
There was no contrail, smoke, no noise throughout the sighting, which lasted no more than five or six seconds.
The sky was very clear, a few stars were visible.
I first saw the object when it came from behind the left of the sloping roof of the house which is a little to the left and along the opposite sidewalk. I lost sight of it when it disappeared behind the corner of the wall at the left end of the house opposite and a little to the right, on the opposite sidewalk.
Between the opposite two houses, the distance is 20 meters.
From where I was, the roof of the house on the left is 30 meters away and the corner of the far left wall of the house on the right is about 15 meters away.
The viewing angle between the roof of the left house and the angle of the left exterior wall of the right house is approximately 40°.
The object was moving at approximately a 40° angle from the horizon.
The apparent angular size of the object is approximately 2cm, spotted on the first phalanges of the left thumb, estimated with outstretched arm. I am not able to estimate the distance which separated me from the object but at the time, I thought that it must have been directly above the Gare du Nord (actual distance between the observer and the station in question: 600 meters).
The window through which I observed the luminous phenomenon is oriented
I, the undersigned Mrs [NAME, first name], residing at [postal address], 68200 MULHOUSE, declare that the above account represents a correct description of my observation and its circumstances.
Done in Mulhouse, August 2002.
Note that the name, first name and address of the witness were known to us, I do not publish them since the witness has requested that his anonymity be respected.
My ufologist colleague who had collected this testimony had taken several pictures of the place showing the view that the witness, standing behind a window, had at the time of the observation. On one of them, he had indicated what the witness said he saw:
|
|
On this picture and the next one, I masked the houses on the right and on the left in order to preserve the anonymity of the witness.
|
Above: view showing the window frame, taken at the distance the witness was from this window.
|
The witness to this sighting was at about the landmark I placed in the green circle. Basel - Mulhouse airport is in the red circle, 20 km southeast of the position of the witness in this case.
|
The horizontal observation direction was 314° to 334°, i.e. 20° of the sky. In the report, it is given as 40°, but this is an error that I correct here.
As the lady indicated, this is the direction of the Gare du Nord in Mulhouse; the latter is quite extent, from 308° to due north, and about 600 meters from the place of observation.
The street that separates the witness's house and the two opposite houses is in fact an alley, a passage ("La Cité" district); it is not wide at all, it barely corresponds to the width of a car. With the small size of the gardens in front of the houses, this explains why the opposite houses are so close.
This testimony could make one think of an airplane, for example an airliner bypassing Mulhouse at the north to then head towards Basel - Mulhouse airport 20 km to the South-East.
However, there are elements against it:
The angular velocity would be consistent with that of an airliner or helicopter, but not that of a jet fighter. A jet fighter, given the angular size, would necessarily have caused quite an audible noise.
It is not certain that the testimony of this lady corresponds to what the Belgian motorist had seen on the A 35 highway, an observation which can very well be explained by an airliner.
It is interesting that the sighting of the Belgian motorist took place 5 minutes before this one, according to the times given by the witnesses of the two cases.
We had a third testimony for a "luminous triangle motionless for at least 15 minutes, with three lights on the corners" seen from Mulhouse the same evening, but at a precise hour that is unknown to me.
In short, the question is: could there have been three quite similar sightings simultaneously, all three of which would have been that of an airplane, but which would have intrigued three independent witnesses enough for two of them, reading the call for witnesses, to have contacted us?
Or conversely: since one of these three testimonies, this one, the only one investigated actually, contains details apparently incompatible with the explanation by an airliner, can we be certain that the two other testimonies had been caused by an airliner?
Anyway, for this case, the "ordinary" and "least worst" explanation would be the airliner or the helicopter, but I can't rule out that it was an extraterrestrial craft. I leave this case as "unidentified."
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 |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | March 7, 2023 | Creation, [pgs1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | March 7, 2023 | First published. |
