On November 29, 1989, gendarme “J” of the Eynatten squad is on duty at the customs on the motorway E40 in Lichtenbusch, where he checks identity papers of people crossing the border.
Between 05:00 p.m. and 05:30 p.m., he sees through the panes of the shelter what he described as an object which flies at very low altitude, which has two or three “excessively luminous” headlights. It is the exceptional power of these headlights that caught his attention.
The object comes from the direction of Germany and passes at approximately 500 meters of this witness. It then moves away flying parallel to the motorway E40, skirting its East side.
The witness initially thought that it could be a helicopter, since helicopters fly between the hospital of Aachen and the hospital of Eupen, but he does not understand why a helicopter would fly so low, with so powerful headlights, and at an abnormally slow speed which is estimated at 60 or 70 km/h.
The weather was beautiful and the sun had been shining, there was practically no wind, the temperature was close to 0°C, the sun set at 04:45 p.m., with a sky gradually losing its brightness.
The sighting is not the first of the day but the first known of the evening.
Sources:
Godelieve van Overmeire indicates that on November 29, 1989 in Belgium between 5 p.m. and the 05:30 p.m. “gendarme J who checks the passports at the border in Lichtenbusch, sees by the pane of his shelter an object which flies at very low altitude with 2 or 3 excessively luminous headlights, at a speed of maximum 60 or 70 km/h and approximately 500 m away.(VOB 1 - Sobeps 1991)”.
Source:
Alain Delmon indicates on his website that between 05:00 p.m. and 17:30 p.m., “gendarme Gunther [or Günther] Justen is on duty checking passports at the border post close to Eupen, and sees 'at 500 m of me and a hundred m. of ALT, coming from Germany, a strange flying object which comprises 2 or 3 very bright headlights. Speed: 50-60 km/h.' (VOB1,16).”
Alain Delmon indicates that it was still day even though it was twilight.
Source:
The text by Renaud Leclet et al. indicates that on November 29, 1989, between 05:00 p.m. and 05:30 p.m., “a gendarme at the border post of Lichtenbusch observed, coming from Germany, an object at very low altitude, with two to three headlights. He too initially thought of a helicopter circulating between the hospitals of Eupen and Aachen and wondered why this one flew so low with such powerful headlights.”
Source:
The customs office is at 11 kilometers from the center of Eupen.
The E40 highway apparently was later called A3.
The object location and trajectory on the map below is not written in stone. This is only the most likely approximation based on the information available and taken at face value.
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[map1]
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[map2]
| Id: | Sujet: | Sévérité: | Noté le: | Description: | Proposition: | Statut: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | May 2, 2009 | Whether there was an investigation or not is not known to me. | Help necessary. | Open. |
| 2 | Data | Severe | May 2, 2009 | If there was an investigation, the report is not available to me. | Help necessary. | Open. |
| 3 | Data | Severe | May 2, 2009 | Missing data on angular size, angular elevation, angular motion of object. | Help necessary. | Open. |
| 4 | Data | Severe | May 2, 2009 | Date when reported, circumstances of reporting by witness not known to me. | Help necessary. | Open. |
| Version: | Created/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | May 2, 2009 | Creation. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 2, 2009 | First publication. |
