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Case of Hégenheim, on December 31, 2002:

Case number:

ALSACAT-2000-31-12-HEGENHEIM-1

Summary:

In June 2011, a young man contacted GEIPAN, the group officially responsible for the question of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena in France, by telephone, then email, to report that he had observed a UFO from his bedroom in Hégenheim on December 30, 2002.

Invited by the GEIPAN to fill in their questionnaire, he reported there by copying - pasting what he had already declared to them by email:

"I was in my bedroom and I had kept the windows open to watch the fireworks and my gaze was caught by an unidentified phenomenon i first thought it was fireworks but after that it started to turn very quickly and without a crackling noise or spark or an explosion nothing at all it turns clockwise without clockwise it stops for 2 seconds and it turns counter clockwise until midnite it was a dazzling white disk with no metallic rim it was stationary above the field more than 10,000 m clear sky without cloud and i remember it was the new moon that night."

In his answers to the questionnaire, we learn that he was then 9 years old, that the observation had started at 8:15 p.m., that the duration had been 24 hours (understand, until midnight), that his younger brother also saw it, that the phenomenon was above a field beside the Lertzbach stream, that the night was clear, cloudless, windless, that it was the new moon that evening, that there was no change from the beginning to the end of the sighting, that there was no noise, no plane.

He speaks of an observation distance of 10,000 meters, of a height he cannot estimate, of a circumference of 2 meters.

Three years later, this same witness had visited me, wishing to help in ufological work. As it quickly appeared to me that his interest in ufology had been triggered by an observation he said he had made, I noted the elements that I collected in the discussion with him at that time, discussion of a duration of about an hour.

This time, he indicated that on December 31, 2000, aged 11 and a half, he was at home with his parents, in Hégenheim, at an address he gave me, an apartment on the fourth floor, when around 8 p.m., his parents being busy with preparations for the New Year0s Eve, he was in his bedroom watching the fireworks through the window.

His gaze had then be caught on something which he thought must probably already have been there: a thing with a sharp circular outline, of "intense" white color, totally motionless at that moment.

The angular elevation I asked him to indicate by arm elevation suggests that the thing was a little less than vertical, between 70 and 80 degrees of elevation. I got an angular size from him, which would be about the width of both hands at an outstretched arm.

He spontaneously indicated that in his memory, stars, or the stars, were visible in the sky, the moon was also there, the thing he observed was not the moon which was not at same place. He was talking about a sky that was completely clear, with no clouds to provide a background for the UFO, no evidence to give a distance or actual size.

The UFO had been completely silent during the entire sighting. There were no environmental noises or car noises, the night was quiet.

The UFO will remain visible, motionless, throughout the observation period, which ended around midnight, a very long period, almost four hours.

During the observation, there was only one event to note. At a certain moment, the UFO had started to make an incredibly fast rotation on itself, without changing position, during only half a second, in clockwise direction. One second later, it began to rotate in the same manner but this time in the opposite direction, and this rotation lasted until the end of the observation, when the UFO simply "disappeared."

Through my questions, I learned that the contours were clear, without halos, without radiation.

During the observation, there will be only one event to note. At a certain moment, the UFO had started to make an incredibly fast rotation on itself, without changing position, during only half a second, in the direction of the clocks. A second later, it began to rotate in the same way but this time in the opposite direction, and this rotation lasted until the end of the observation, when the UFO simply "disappeared".

When questioned, he told me that he then told about this to his little brother who was 3 years younger than him, who did not know what to say to him; he also talked about it to his father, who mentioned the possibility of projectors at a Swiss nightclub. The witness said little about his sighting afterwards to those around him for fear of ridicule. However, he indicated that "three or four years ago" he had written a deposition which he sent to GEIPAN, but that the response, received by his father, amounted to saying that he was insane because the "means of detection" (radar?) had shown that there was nothing there.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. gei1:] GROUPE D'ETUDES ET D'INFORMATIONS SUR LES PHENOMENES AEROSPATIAUX NON IDENTIFIES (G.E.I.P.A.N.):

(Sur la page 4 de narration libre, il n'y a aucune information.)

(Sur la page 6 de narration libre, il n'y a aucune information.)

(La page 15 invite à réaliser des croquis de l'observation.)

[Ref. pgs1:] PATRICK GROSS:

On Wednesday, January 29, 2014, shortly before 6 p.m., I was visited to my then home by a young man who introduced himself as wishing to give me a helping hand for ufology.

It very quickly appeared that his interest in ufology had been triggered by the observation he said he made, of which these are the elements as I gathered them in the discussion with him at that time, discussion lasting about an hour. I had noted down what the young man was saying as he told his story, and wrote the following notes immediately after he left.

On December 31, 2000, aged 11 and a half, he was at home with his parents, in Hégenheim, at an address he gave me, an apartment on the second floor of a building.

Around 8 p.m., his parents were busy preparing for the New Year's Eve - his father was busy opening the oysters. He, in his bedroom, was looking out the window at the fireworks, he appreciated the pyrotechnics.

His gaze then fell on something that must have probably already been there. The angular elevation that I asked him to indicate by arm elevation suggests that the thing was a little less than vertical, between 70 and 80 degrees of elevation.

I had him provide an angular size, and it would be about two hands-width apart at an outstretched arm, which is an absolutely huge angular size.

The thing he said he saw had a sharp circular outline and was "intense" white in color, "whiter than linen." It was at this moment totally stationary.

He spontaneously indicated that in his memory, stars, or many stars, were visible in the sky, the moon was also visible, the thing he observes was not the moon which was not at same place, he said. The sky was completely clear, there were no clouds to form a background for the UFO, no element to give a distance or an actual size.

The UFO was completely silent during the entire sighting. There were no environmental noises or car noises, the night was quiet, which is not surprising.

The UFO remained visible, motionless, throughout the observation period, which ended around midnight, a very long period, almost four hours.

During the observation, there was only one event to note. At a certain moment, the UFO began to perform an incredibly rapid rotation on itself, without changing position, for only half a second, clockwise. One second later, it started rotating in the manner way but this time counter-clockwise, and this spin lasted until the end of the observation, around midnight.

I tried to understand how this rotation could have been visible - the UFO being described at the moment as having a sharp circular outline and an intense white color. the young man explained to me that there was on one side at the bottom and on the left of the circular outline something which seemed like a metallic reflection or a silvery part, and it was the rapid displacement of this part which made this rotation visible. The aspect of reflection or "pure silver" of this part of the UFO would correspond according to the young man to the part that the light of the Moon could have illuminated (of course this makes no sense).

The end of the sighting is that the UFO simply "disappeared", was no longer visible, all of a sudden, without any movement.

The brightness or albedo and apparent size of the UFO never changed.

Through my questions, I learned that the contours were clearcut, without halos, without radiation. There was no background to give the maximum distance between him and the UFO.

I made a location map of the residence, with the position of the window, the road, landmarks such as a bridge over a stream, a stadium, a parking lot, the direction of observation, in order to to be able to determine the actual directional angle.

The witness told me his name, first name, mobile phone number, address.

Following his observation, the witness said he had mocking reactions from his school mates. He was at the CM1 level in Saint-Louis Bourgfelden.

He then told it to little brother, who was three years younger than him, who didn't know what to say - which didn't surprise his brother. He also talked about it to his father later, and the father mentioned the possibility of projectors in a Swiss nightclub. The witness said little about his sighting afterwards to those around him for fear of ridicule.

However, he indicated that "three or four years ago" he wrote a statement which he sent to GEIPAN, but that the response, received by his father, amounted to saying that he was crazy because the "means of detection" (radar?) had shown that there had been nothing there.

On my questioning, the witness told me that he had never observed anything unusual before or since this observation.

He says he has been interested in UFOs ever since, and in Reiki as well. He spontaneously indicated that before the sighting he had heard of UFOs, of Roswell, but nothing more, without knowing much.

He indicates on my questioning that he has no idea about what he saw, that it was clearly abnormal for him, dfferent from anything ordinary, he has since learned what sounding balloons, planes, and other causes of UFO sightings, but sees none that could in any manner explain what he saw. He envisions extraterrestrial technology, or earth-based, extraterrestrial-inspired technology, and shows every sign that the ordinary certainties about this sort of thing no longer apply to him.

The witness showed a personality that I would describe as "disturbed". His personal family history could well explain it, since he had experienced a family drama (in which he has no responsibility) between the time of the observation and that of his visit to my home. Too young then to manage the situation, he was under the guardianship of public social assistance.

He spoke correctly and gently; but he has no scientific training, he sometimes used quite a peculiar vocabulary. For example, discussing the UFO question, he used the expression "extraterrestrial substance", and it occurred to me that this rather strange expression meant in fact to him, "extraterrestrial craft."

It was obviously impossible for me to determine whether his "disturbance" was an integral part of his personality already before the observation, or resulted from the trauma of his family drama, or was a consequence of the observation.

I don't think he just made up the observation he was reporting. But clearly listening to him I was envisioning he had seen a full moon - I examine this idea in the discussion further down in this file.

[Ref. spa1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "SPICA":

Discussion:

The young man made two statements, one to GEIPAN, by phoning, then sending an e-mail, then filling up, on request, the GEIPAN questionnaire. The other statement was made during his visit to my home.

His visit to my home toook place onJanuary 29, 2014 precisely; I noted this down at the time. He had told me that he had made a statement to GEIPAN, and I had discovered this statement on January 30, 2014, on the GEIPAN website, the case being noted as having been rcorded In June 2011 with its latest update on June 9, 2011. This testimony would therefore predate the account he told me by three years.

I publish this file in March 2023; at the time GEIPAN publishes the observation, GEIPAN could not have known that he was going to contact me afterwards, and at the time he told me about his observation, his testimony to GEIPAN was not known to me yet either.

He had given me December 31, 2000 as the observation date, whereas he declared to GEIPAN December 30, 2002 as the observation date. I use for this file the date he had given to GEIPAN three years before the one he had indicated to me, but the uncertainty must be noted, the possible dates are multiple. The day being "remarkable" - new year's eve with fireworks - we can consider that it would probably be December 31st. For me, his personality explains it this way: it was the last day of the year, and he couldn't specify, in his head, if the month of December has 30 or 31 days.

For the year, it is 2002 indicated to the GEIPAN three years before he indicates "2000" to me. The reason for his visit to me was not to report his observation to me, but to help, to offer his services for ufological work. It was I who had asked him for the details of his observation, and this "2000", a round number, I consider it to be an approximation, whereas for the year he gave to GEIPAN, he had certainly wanted to be precise.

I noted during his visit that his personality seemed rather "disturbed"; I could tell he was confused. This is very noticeable in the differences between the two depositions, the date not being the only difference.

Thus, he told GEIPAN that his little brother had been a second witness; to me, he stated that he told about the sighting to his little brother, who therefore would not have witnessed it.

GEIPAN's response to his testimony is not the one he told me he had received. The GEIPAN may have informed his father of the lack of radar detection, but they certainly never wrote that he had been out of his mind; I am convinced that the GEIPAN would never issue such an appreciation.

He did not manage to give an angular size to the GEIPAN, speaking of the object as having "2 m in circumference". At my request, he had told me that the angular size was approximately the width of both hands with an outstretched arm. Taking "small hands", say, 20 centimeters, this gives us an angular size of 14 degrees. That is an object of 2.5 at 10 meters, 25 meters at 100 meters, 250 meters at 1000 meters. If we take seriously his estimate of distance of 10,000 meters he gave on the GEIPAN form, this gives us an object of 2500 meters in diameter.

In the GEIPAN form, he indicated a size of 2 meters for the object, and placed it at 10000 meters, that is to say, 10 kilometers. This clearly does not fit.

It is obvious that an intense white object 25 meters in diameter 100 meters high above Hégenheim on New Year's Eve as locals watched the fireworks would have been unlikely seen by only one witness.

If it had been the light of a projector on the underside of a cloud, the problem would be solved if we consider that the spectators would have been aware that it was the result of a projector and not a "UFO".

He had told me about the rapid spin of the object on itself. As he also indicated an intense white object without any particular feature, I immediately wondered how he could have noticed this spin; it was then that he had evoked a part of the object, "like a metallic reflection or a silvery part", which would have enabled him to sistinguish the spin. When he explained to me that this "part" could have been a reflection of the moon on the object, he was obviously in error since a reflection of the moon would have remained at the same location on the object. The general impression I had about this was that there was no spin, that he imagined it; or that, if it was a projector, the projector could have been in rotation, the "UFO" having then traveled a circle or an ellipse on a cloudy background.

The indication of the direction of the Lertzbach stream is not useful since the stream crosses Hégenheim from south to north.

We can take an interest in the question of the Moon. I had obviously wondered if he had taken the Moon for a UFO, and by questioning I was able to make him indicate that according to him, this was not the case since the Moon was visible elsewhere in the sky. Of course, an explanation by the Moon seems a priori absurd, not only because of the angular size he gave but also because of the duration of 4 hours during which said Moon would have remained in the same place in the sky. But this is however an element of the story, allowing verification.

Note that we obviously need a full moon, not a crescent moon, were this a misinterpretation of the Moon.

It so happens that on December 31, 2002, the Moon did not rise above the horizon in the sky before 05:43 in the morning. And if I take the year 2000 that he indicated to me, the Moon was in the sky in the evening, but only after 10:25 p.m.

So if the sighting had taken place on the most likely date of January 31, 2002, there was no moon, and he must have added it to his story to convince me, or convince himself, that his UFO was not the moon.

Of all this, the "least worst" explanation that I would propose is the following: there were fireworks this New Year's Eve in Hégenheim, but also a motorized projector of the Skytracer type. It would have projected a white circle on the underside of at least a partial cloud cover. The circle would have been motionless for some time, then, motorisation started, the circle would have made "circles" in one direction, then in the other, until midnight, logically.

It shall be noted:

• The instantaneous disappearance "on the spot" which is explained by the extinction of the projector.
• That the end of the show is precisely at midnight (or a little aftermidnight), which corresponds to a New Year's entertainment use.
• That the witness's father suggested to him as an explanation the projectors of a Swiss nightclub (Hégenheim is 1 km from Allschwil in Switzerland, with two nightclubs almost on the border).

Being 9 years old, the young witness would not have understood what he was looking at. The adults in the area did not see any UFOs because they understood there it was a Skytracer. In the nesxt years, the young witness experienced a family drama, and "clinched" on something that would have constituted a real "diversion" for him. He became interested in UFOs, his childhood memory was enriched by some details he read about UFOs, and his difficulties in expressing notions such as "rotation", angular size etc. resulted in a narrative in which it is no longer entirely clear that the cause of the sighting was a Skytracer projector.

I can't make this scenario a certainty, obviously, but it really is to me the most plausible explanation for this case.

Evaluation:

Possible discotheque projector.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [gei1] * "HEGENHEIM (68) 30.12.2002", case record from the ufology database of the "Groupe d'Etude et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non Identifiés" (GEIPAN), public service, branch of the "Centre National des Etudes Spatiales" (CNES), France, as of January 30, 2014, at http://www.geipan.fr/index.php?id=202&cas=2002-12-02768
• [spa1] * "DEPARTEMENT 68 - HAUT-RHIN", listing of UFO sighting reports by the Alsatian ufology group SPICA, Alsace, France, not dated, found in May 2015, at http://www.spica.org/Page_Listing_68.htm

File history:

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This page was last updated on March 15, 2023.