ALSACAT-2005-11-11-BASRHIN-1
"Stéphane" sent and email on November 13, 2005, to the Swiss ufology group GREPI, telling that on November 11, 2005, at 10:30 p.m., according to the police, a luminous phenomenon was seen in the Alsatian sky flying from the Vosges to Germany. There were several witnesses.
People from Mulhouse, Guebwiller and Colmar had described similar events to the operational center of the gendarmerie, the radar sets of the air base 901 of Drachenbronn did not detect anything. Airline pilots had also observed the phenomenon. The gendarmes in several neighboring villages were also been alerted as well as the police in Strasbourg. A search had been undertaken to locate the site of a possible meteorite crash, but it was ended in the night without success.
Stéphane then gives his own testimony:
"I was quietly watching television when a ball the size of a bird appeared above the neighboring house. It stayed a little less than fifteen seconds and then rose from Saverne to Strasbourg."
| Date: | November 11, 2005 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~10:30 p.m. |
| Duration: | Slightly more than 15 seconds. |
| First known report date: | November 13, 2005 |
| Reporting delay: | 2 days. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | ? |
| Place: | From home, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.253 |
| Longitude: | 7.589 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 50 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | Numerous. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | ? |
| Witness(es) types: | ? |
| Reporting channel: | Email to the Swiss ufology group GREPI. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From home, 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: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Meteor. |
[Ref. gri1:] G.R.E.P.I.:
|
In the night from Friday to Saturday (testimony received Sunday, November 13, 2005 - GREPI), around 10:30 p.m., a luminous phenomenon in the Alsatian sky was seen, flying from the Vosges to Germany. This phenomenon was seen by several witnesses.
It's not just me who testified. People from Mulhousen Guebwiller and Colmar described similar events to the operational center of the gendarmerie. While the radar sets of the air base 901 Drachenbronn detected nothing, airline pilots also observed the phenomenon. The gendarmes in several neighboring villages were been alerted as well as the police in Strasbourg. Research has been undertaken to locate the site of a possible crash of a meteorite. These investigations ended in the night without any discovery.
This was the testimony of the police.
And now mine:
I was quietly watching television when a ball the size of a bird appeared above the neighboring house. It stayed a little less than fifteen seconds and then rose from Saverne to Strasbourg.
It's up to you to answer me now.
Stéphane (Bas-Rhin - France)
[Ref. rnc1:] "RESEAU NATIONAL CIVIL DE SURVEILLANCE DU CIEL":
11/11/2005 - 22h30 - Bas-Rhin (67) - Luminous ball
Witness report by Stéphane published on the GREPI website's page 54 in the witness reports section:
Quote:
In the night from Friday to Saturday (testimony received Sunday, November 13, 2005 - GREPI), around 10:30 p.m., a luminous phenomenon in the Alsatian sky was seen, flying from the Vosges to Germany. This phenomenon was seen by several witnesses.
It's not just me who testified. People from Mulhousen Guebwiller and Colmar described similar events to the operational center of the gendarmerie. While the radar sets of the air base 901 Drachenbronn detected nothing, airline pilots also observed the phenomenon. The gendarmes in several neighboring villages were been alerted as well as the police in Strasbourg. Research has been undertaken to locate the site of a possible crash of a meteorite. These investigations ended in the night without any discovery.
This was the testimony of the police.
And now mine:
I was quietly watching television when a ball the size of a bird appeared above the neighboring house. It stayed a little less than fifteen seconds and then rose from Saverne to Strasbourg.
It's up to you to answer me now.
It is hardly difficult to give an answer: indeed widely seen, not only in Alsace, the phenomenon was a meteor, one of the Taurid meteors seen everywhre in that period.
This Reuters Press Agency news flash was widely use in the media:
Unexplained phenomenon
From Reuters
11/07/2005 01:58 p.m.
Many cases of observations of giant fireballs in the sky of Germany last week gave birth to UFO rumors. Scientists counter that it could be a meteor shower.
According to the NASA website, such fireballs were seen elsewhere in the world and could also mean that the Earth is currently orbiting through a swarm of space debris.
"Many people have observed these fireballs in Germany," said Werner Walter, an amateur astronomer in Mannheim who runs a website on unexplained astronomical phenomena and manages a telephone line dedicated to UFO reports.
"The last sighting of the kind occurred Thursday at 19:30 (1830 GMT) in a corridor near the border of Holland," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We received this week at least a dozen emails and phone calls of people who have seen these fireballs."
In addition to a meteor shower, Walter raised the possibility that the blitz of bright objects can be the result of the entry in the atmosphere of a satellite and its subsequent disintegration.
"It could also be UFOs, which are after all the things we can not explain."
The NASA Science website (http://science.nasa.gov) mentions reports of observations of fireballs over the USA, Canada, Northern Ireland and Japan. One can even find images of these fireballs on the website.
Walter described the phenomenon as follows: "These are huge colored fireballs crossing the sky at the speed of lightning."
The NASA website on their site quotes an expert in meteorites, David Asher of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, according to which "people probably see the Taurid meteor shower."
Taurids are meteors that cross the sky from the constellation Taurus, a phenomenon that reached its peak in late October and early November.
Werner Walter, German ufologist of the "ultra skeptical" kind, may well evoke for once it may also be an "unexplained UFO"; but there is not the slightest reason to think that this was not a meteor.
Meteor.
* = 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 | December 6, 2014 | Creation, [gri1], [rnc1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 6, 2014 | First published. |
