The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Ardennais, France, on June 9, 1994.
See also here for explanations.
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Nothing concrete or definitive in the investigation into the "strange light of Rocroi" which occurred at the beginning of March. The phenomenon remains unexplained... and will probably remain so for a long time to come.
The strange luminous phenomenon of Gué d'Hossus remains mysterious: despite the avalanche of questions it has raised and the examination of several leads that followed, the answers are still hypotheses.
A brief reminder of the facts.
During the night of Saturday 5 to Sunday 6 March, two frog hunters, Christophe Namèche and Alban Simon, who were in a clearing of Gué d'Hossus (near Rocroi in the Ardennes) - and precisely at the place called "le trou du blanc" - noticed a strong and surprising silent luminous source.
The next morning, in the same place, they discovered a strange circular and reddened trace on the ground. Is this trace linked to the phenomenon observed a few hours earlier? What is the nature of this phenomenon?
The search for answers mobilizes investigators, both official and private: three months after the phenomenon was observed, no one is able to explain it.
Starting with the one who is considered the specialist in the field, Jean-Jacques Vélasco, head of SEPRA (Service d'expertise des phénomènes de rentrées atmospheriques) in Toulouse.
SEPRA depends on the very serious CNES (National Center for Space Studies): it is this organization that the gendarmes of the Rocroi brigade have mandated.
Reached by telephone in Toulouse, Jean-Jacques Vélasco is categorical: for him, the two testimonies are consistent (there is no other) and the witnesses are trustworthy. He excludes any hoax or fabrication on their part, and this for several reasons. One of the most obvious is that the two men did not really have anything to boast about teasing frogs in the middle of the night...
Other convictions: the cloud ceiling was very low, it was raining. Enough to considerably limit confusion with natural or artificial points of light (moon, nightclub lights, etc.). "The observation conditions were excellent since the two men were about 150 meters from the supposed glow, which was very intense", continues the specialist who recalls on the one hand any absence of noise linked to the phenomenon, and on the other hand the exceptional duration of the observation, 4 to 5 minutes, at the end of which the two men, seized by panic, fled.
As for the trace on the ground, the investigations conducted by Jean-Jacques Vélasco do not allow him in any way to associate it with the luminous phenomenon, or to refuse to associate it with it. The possible sensitivity to the temperature of the grass could not be determined, and we will probably have to wait until next year to find similar atmospheric conditions to establish possible comparisons... whose hypothetical result would not prove much!
In short, the investigation is leading nowhere on this side: "I have no answers to my questions", admits the specialist, who is on the verge of classifying the phenomenon as unexplained.
The Ardennes resident Jean-Michel Ligeron (author of several books on UFOs, private investigator) is careful not to comment: "I can't specify anything in particular. Even if I had hypotheses, I would wait several months before sharing them; he confides for lack of tangible elements.
Same story from the Ardennes branch of the Centre d'études Ovni France (CEOF) which could not explain the phenomenon. Jean-Luc Lemaire, from the CEOF, however, indicates an anomaly with respect to the scorched grass: it does not catch fire and crumbles. Outside the perimeter considered, the same variety burns like straw. But there too, nothing explains this observation and nothing authorizes any parallel between the scorched grass and the strange light.
However, Jean-Luc Lemaire wishes more than ever to continue his investigations. Potential witnesses can contact him at 73, avenue Charles de Gaulle in Charleville-Mézières (tel: 24.59.08.42). The CEOF is not short of work: since we published its first call for witnesses, it has been working on about fifteen files which all concern observations (sometimes surprising) made in Champagne-Ardenne over the same period. Here too, the checks will last for months.
It goes without saying that the strange light of Rocroi, unless there is an improbable twist of fate, is entering a shadowy zone that could well be definitive.
Jean-Michel François
