The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Ardennais, France, le March 14, 1994.
TWO frog hunters made a strange discovery on the French-Belgian border in the Ardennes, on the night of Saturday 5 to Sunday 6 March.
Having gone in search of amphibians, in a clearing of the Gué d'Hossus, at the place called "Le trou du blanc", they were surprised by a very powerful light source that appeared not far from them, but they were unable to identify it. This source, apparently, was a few meters above the ground and gradually faded.
Our frog enthusiasts then fled immediately. They first took refuge in a nearby farm, then returned home. However, they had decided not to forget it.
The next morning, they returned to the field. There, stunned, they discovered on the ground a circle of about 5 meters in diameter, where the grass seemed to have been slightly burned. Unable to hold back any longer, they went to tell their misadventure to the police.
Hearings, reports, opening of an investigation... The grass on the ground did indeed have an unusual appearance. However, the burnt part was only superficially so. The bottom was green.
As is the case in such affairs, experts were called in. On the one hand, the managers of the National Forestry Office, but also, specialists from Toulouse who belonged to the National Center for Space Studies and the French Space Agency.
In addition to hearing witnesses, samples were taken and very in-depth studies were carried out, which are continuing in the laboratory. However, it would seem that the grass had not been burned. It could therefore be a particular type of vegetation.
While we must wait for botanical and scientific explanations to confirm this theory, the origin of the light source remains to be determined. Given the proximity of the Florennes air base (Belgium), it could be that a plane, flying at night, passed over the clearing with its engines off, and lit up the ground to get its bearings. Studies are also being conducted to clarify this point.
It will probably take several months to know the experts' conclusions and to know if our two frog hunters witnessed the appearance of an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).
Note: the plane theory is completely ridiculous; however, there is a simple explanation: a strong lamp used by entomologists to attract insects. There are frogs there, so there are insects too. This lamp could have "dried" the grass, and the article clearly states that "the grass was not burned" even though others said it was "slightly burned". Explanation: it was dried out, what some called "slightly burned" and others "not burned."
