A major of the Belgian army, resident of Liege, whose identity is known of the SOBEPS investigators, reported he made the following observation.
On November 29, 1989 between 10:30 a.m. 10:40 a.m., he was 2 km in the south-east of Walhorn, with a group of walkers who went in the direction of the Vesdre dam near Eupen.
He saw an object in the sky; which resembled a large plate, without identifiable form, which was perhaps a triangle. The object had no wings.
Its single color was metallic looking, rather shining, with an aluminum or zinc appearance. It reflected very well the shining sun.
He considered its big size as being two to four times that of a plane.
The object slowly moved from the north towards the west, visually above Eynatten, at an altitude that the witness estimated as being between 1500 and 4000 meters of altitude.
The witness specified that he found that weird, because at first sight, it must have been a plane, but that at this distance, especially when seeing that the object was so big, no sound came from it.
The author points out that this case was not fully investigated, he used what was provided by the witness.
The author finds it difficult to draw definitive conclusions from the record of such cases, and wonders whether it is even possible in ufology to draw definitive conclusions.
He says comments can still be made. For example, this testimony and those of the same series refers to a dark ovoid object whose surface sometimes seemed covered with assembled plates, a structure that was visible in Hainaut, but especially in the area of Jalhay where it flew in a northeast-southwest axis in both directions.
He noted that the diurnal nature of this observation and others in the region that day revealed little new information on the observed objects, the structural details are difficult to extract from the collected reports. He commented that this may be in itself an interesting characteristic, since several witnesses said they were puzzled by the lack of external details.
Source:
There is a summary for this observation, published on the web by the Belgian ufologist Godelieve Van Overmeire in her catalog circa 1999, now gone, but much copied by UFO websites and forums. This summary is as follows:
1989, November 29
BELGIUM, Verviers area
Vers 10 h 30 un major de l'armée participant à une marche de Walhorn au Barrage de la Gileppe, et voit un grand objet qui se déplace au-dessus de Eynatten à une altitude estimée à 2000m. L'aspect est du genre zinc-aluminium, une sorte de grande plaque sans ailes et qui se déplace sans bruit. (VOB 1 - Sobeps 1991)
Source example:
It is hard to get an idea of what the witness saw.
The estimate of altitude cannot be taken literally, because of the absence of reference mark in the sky. It is a very broad range, going from 1500 to 4000 meters. The distance is not given, the drawing of the witness or of the investigator in the SOBEPS book volume 2 on page 251 gives the impression low seen from the side, in this case it could mean that it was far away. An angular size would have been necessary.
If the object were at the most “favorable” values more, i.e. 4 times larger than a big plane and at 1500 meters in height, it is indeed strange that the sound was not heard, or that the wings were not seen, if it were a plane. But if the most unfavorable values are taken, a 4000 meters height, a size of only twice a some unspecified type of plane, far away, the estimate “two to four times larger than a plane” does not mean much, the wings could be reflective, they could not have been visible. It commonly happens that a plane high in the sky lets only see its fuselage because the reflective wings reflect the color of the sky and the ground, and that day the ground was precisely snow-covered. If it were a plane, its noise could have been weak because of the possible distance, and/or covered by sounds of cars on the motorway, possibly nearby.
The drawing does not show a flat object nor a triangular object, but a shape of an egg, point ahead, without any structural feature. This point is slightly more pointed than that of an egg, and the proportions are much thicker than that of a plane's fuselage, but as the witness states the idea of a flat object, as well as the possibility it was triangular, and the mention that it had no identifiable shape, it is obvious that the drawing must not be taken at face value.
It is thus possible that the witness, after having heard about the numerous and more spectacular observations of the evening of that day, was motivated to report his observation. He was right; but its strangeness is not obvious.
These notes are to be taken with a grain of salt, since the summary given in the SOBEPS book is not a complete investigation report; which may provide information reinforcing or voiding the points I raise here.
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Above: Country landscape arounf Eupen, with snow as on the day of this sighting.
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Above: Aerial view. The witness was 2 kilometers in the south-east of Walhorn. Walhorn is with a little less than 6 kilometers from the center of Eupen. Eynatten is in the North-East of Walhorn at 3-4 kilometers.
| Version: | Created/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 29, 2008 | Creation. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 29, 2008 | First publication. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | September 20, 2013 | Addition of the information by Mrs van Overmeire. |
