by Leslie Kean
Leslie Kean
New York City
PART 1
OBJECTS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
CHAPTER 1
Majestic Craft with Powerful Beaming Spotlights
We begin this exploration on very solid ground, with a Major General’s firsthand chronicle of one of the most vivid and well-documented UFO cases ever. What you are about to read will demonstrate the dramatic, and very mysterious, physicality of UFOs—in this case, ones that were unusually bold. Although parts may sound like science fiction, they are not. The fact is that silent gliding or hovering objects, usually triangular, were seen by thousands of people and investigated by university scientists and government officials, yet they could never be explained. They left imprints on film, and although virtually impossible to detect on radar, they triggered the launching of Air Force F-16s in anxious pursuit. The sightings occurred in a more than two-year “wave” over Belgium, beginning in late 1989.
To launch this book’s exploration into the UFO phenomenon, Belgian Major General Wilfried De Brouwer, now retired, has provided an exclusive account that includes some personal responses he has never expressed before. As chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff, then Colonel De Brouwer played a prominent role, along with officials from other branches of government, in mobilizing various departments to try to identify the strange intruders that kept showing up unannounced over cities and countryside. “Hundreds of people saw a majestic triangular craft with a span of approximately a hundred and twenty feet and powerful beaming spotlights, moving very slowly without making any significant noise but, in several cases, accelerating to very high speeds,” De Brouwer stated publicly a few years ago, describing only the first night of the wave. Numerous police officers were among the initial group of witnesses, reporting from different locations as the multiple flying craft hovered and glided and lit up fields along their routes—the same officers who had joked dismissively when first receiving radio calls about the sightings. And the strange objects kept returning, for some unfathomable reason, to display themselves over the otherwise quiet territory of Belgium.
Colonel De Brouwer was tasked to handle the UFO wave by his country’s defense minister, Guy Coëme. After spending twenty years as a fighter pilot in the Belgian Air Force, De Brouwer had been appointed to the Strategic Planning Branch in NATO in 1983, while a colonel. He then became Wing Commander of the Belgian Air Force Transport Wing and, in 1989, chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff. Promoted to Major General in 1991, he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the Belgian Air Force, in charge of operations, planning, and human resources. Beginning in 1995, after his retirement from the Air Force, he worked for more than ten years as a consultant for the United Nations to improve the UN Logistics rapid-response capabilities during emergencies. A man of great integrity and responsibility, De Brouwer was determined to do everything he could to find out what was invading Belgian airspace and repeatedly committing infractions of basic aviation rules.
I first came to know General De Brouwer personally when arranging his trip to Washington, D.C., in November 2007 to speak at an international press conference I organized with filmmaker James Fox. We brought together a panel of former high-ranking government, aviation, and military officials from seven countries to speak to the press about UFO incidents and investigations, which was filmed for a new documentary. We also wanted to give these courageous speakers the opportunity to meet their counterparts from other countries and talk privately over a period of days. Many of the contributors to this book met then for the first time.
General De Brouwer is extremely concerned about factual accuracy, conservative in his estimations, and meticulous in his attention to detail. He is a man who does not jump to conclusions, nor is he prone to exaggeration or embellishment. His concern for safeguarding the accurate record of events in Belgium has not let up, despite the passage of time. “Recently, when on the Internet, I discovered an accumulation of misinformation about the Belgian UFO wave,” he wrote me in an e-mail while we worked on editing his extensive text. “This incited me to react; I cannot accept that so-called researchers come forward with assumptions that are based on incorrect information. Testimonies of hundreds of people are neglected and attempts are made to convince outsiders that the observations were nothing more than misperceptions of ordinary craft. Also, the official statements of the Minister of Defense and the Air Force have been neglected or misinterpreted by these ‘researchers.’”
In one of our more recent conversations, I asked the general to reflect back on his experience during the Belgian UFO wave twenty years ago—which he says was unique but also frustrating, since they were unable to identify the trespassing craft. What impressed him most was the utmost sincerity of the witnesses he spoke to, many of whom were “highly qualified intellectuals genuinely overwhelmed by what they had seen and convinced that they were not dealing with conventional technology.” Unfortunately, they were often afraid to come forward because of the stigma attached to UFOs. “One person I had known for many years worked within NATO at the time,” De Brouwer said. “He was so astonished that he didn’t dare to mention it to anyone, not even to his wife. He only conveyed his experience to me on condition that I wouldn’t reveal his name.”
I had the good fortune of conversing with one highly placed, expert witness who did not restrain himself, despite the risks. Colonel André Amond, a retired civil engineer, was the director of military infrastructure for the Belgian Army and also formerly in charge of army environmental-impact issues at the Joint Staff level, cooperating closely with American officials. As De Brouwer reports in the next chapter, Amond and his wife had an extensive look at one of these low-flying machines while driving down a country road and parking along the side. Amond had absolutely no doubt about the exceptional nature of what he saw. With total conviction, he went all the way to the top, filing a written report and providing a series of drawings for the Belgian Defense Minister.
As far as he’s concerned, Colonel Amond was able to eliminate all possible explanations for the object, and states that it was some kind of “unknown aerial vehicle.” As for his reflection on this event two decades later, he wrote in an e-mail: “Today there is not yet any explanation! That is a pity because I want to know before dying. Give me a correct explanation of my sighting; that is all that I can ask.” He speaks for thousands of others who never thought about UFOs before having the unasked-for experience of seeing one. For many, the effect of that lasts a lifetime.
In order to fully grasp the significance of the evidence to be presented by General De Brouwer, we must recognize the special circumstances of this extraordinary series of events. Most UFO cases are not “waves,” and don’t offer up nearly as much data as this one did. Usually they involve a one-time incident, and naturally these are harder both to document and to investigate. The many hundreds of vivid and consistent case reports collected over time in Belgium—accumulated and investigated by a group of scientists working with the Air Force—created opportunities for radar detection and other technical applications that benefit from advanced preparation. The large number of sightings increased the likelihood of obtaining valid photos and video footage. The military had adequate time to assess and test a range of options for what the objects might be, which could be either verified or eliminated based on official inquiries, such as whether any helicopters were airborne at a particular time. Officials could prepare for future visits of the UFOs by training radar specialists to handle these exceptional targets and readying Air Force jets to launch at a moment’s notice. As events unfolded over months and years in Belgium, all mundane, conventional explanations were ruled out. It became very clear what the objects were not, but there was still no clarity about what they were.
Eventually, the only possibl
e option left, no matter how remote, was that the objects were F-117A stealth fighters or other secret American military aircraft, sent out on some kind of experimental, clandestine exercise. General De Brouwer thought it extremely unlikely that secret aircraft would be sent to fly repeatedly over Belgium without any official notification, in violation of air rules, since no U.S. Air Force overflight requests had been received. He was also aware that the technological abilities the objects displayed were beyond the capacity even of experimental aircraft—which, the general points out, remains the case today. Nonetheless, he made inquiries to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, and to other NATO partners through informal contacts with their attachés.
The answer was exactly what he expected. And the results of his inquiry are spelled out in a U.S. government document, classified at the time, but since released through the Freedom of Information Act. The March 1990 memo “Belgium and the UFO Issue” notes that De Brouwer asked whether the objects were American B-2 or F-117 military aircraft, stating that he made the inquiry despite his clarity that “the alleged observations did not correspond in any way to the observable characteristics of either U.S. aircraft.” The document further states that “the USAF did confirm to the BAF [Belgian Air Force] and Belgian MOD [Ministry of Defense] that no USAF stealth aircraft were operating in the Ardennes area1 during the periods in question.” De Brouwer reported to me that he was also assured privately by an American official that the U.S. had no “black program” that could have caused these multiple sightings.
In 1992, Belgium’s defense minister, Leo Delcroix, confirmed this once again when replying to a letter from a French researcher. “Unfortunately, no explanation has been found to date,” he wrote. “The nature and origin of the phenomenon remain unknown. One theory can be definitely dismissed, however, since the Belgian Armed Forces have been positively assured by American authorities that there has never been any sort of American aerial test flight.”2
This is an important point to keep in mind when reading the witness accounts provided by De Brouwer. We’re stuck with a serious dilemma. Has the military from some country been testing new, extremely advanced craft since the mid-1970s, which is when reports of such triangular craft began? Was Belgium selected as the site for repeated test flights, monitored from a secret base somewhere? Common sense tells us that if a government had developed huge craft that can hover motionless only a few hundred feet up, and then speed off in the blink of an eye—all without making a sound—such technology would have revolutionized both air travel and modern warfare, and probably physics as well. In the two decades since the Belgian wave, the United States has been involved in three wars; had we possessed such advanced capabilities, they would surely have been put to use by now. If some government was secretly, and inexplicably, flying this marvel over Belgium, it would have had to lie to the Belgian authorities when inquiries were made and thus disrupt the partnership among NATO members, which is based on mutual respect and trust. And every person involved with the creation and flight of this highly advanced craft would have had to have kept the miraculous technology and its repeated test flights secret—indeed, no one has come forward and nothing about such an enterprise has ever leaked out. Nonetheless, in the minds of some, this will remain as a possibility, no matter how unlikely.
As far as General De Brouwer is concerned, that possibility has been completely ruled out. So, to his mind, what’s left? “I am approaching the UAP issue in a pragmatic way. I stick to the facts and avoid extrapolations to possible extraterrestrial activities,” General De Brouwer responded by e-mail. “Nevertheless, I encourage scientific research which should be based on the objective analysis of a number of observations reported during the Belgian wave. Such research should not exclude the extraterrestrial option.”
Lastly, I want to point out the significance of the close-up color photograph of an unidentified object that De Brouwer will present—one of the most revealing UFO images of all time. Readers might reasonably ask why there aren’t more unequivocal pictures and videos of the Belgian objects, since there were so many sightings. Partly, this was because of the strict requirements of the authorities regarding the acceptance of photographs; their screening methods eliminated all questionable and unverifiable images. In addition, it’s easy to forget that twenty years ago, cell phones and relatively inexpensive, consumer-level digital and video cameras were not yet in use. Most often, people did not have loaded cameras handy at the unpredictable times when UFOs passed overhead, such as at night while driving. In my conversations with many UFO witnesses over the years, I’ve learned that when observing something as awesome, and sometimes frightening, as a gigantic low-flying UFO, people become almost transfixed. They are seeing something that isn’t supposed to exist, something ominous, huge and silent, that was previously unimaginable. Most do not take their eyes off the otherworldly thing except maybe to quickly summon family members or friends within earshot. They keep staring, and the distraction of taking a picture is not on their minds. The craft is usually moving away, soon to be out of sight. They do not want to run inside the house to look for a camera, or unpack a bag in the trunk of the car to find one, or worry if it’s loaded. The moment is too unusual, too breathtaking.
Even when a picture is taken, it doesn’t always come out. If the lights are some distance away and the exposure too short, nothing shows up in the frame. Also, other characteristics of the UFO can inhibit the registering of its bright lights on film. In one case, a Belgian movie producer and two colleagues,3 using high-sensitivity film, photographed one of the objects passing directly overhead. The photographer estimated its altitude to be only about 1,000 feet, with the object’s diameter six times that of a full moon. As a control, he photographed an ordinary airplane several minutes later in the same spot, using all the same settings on the camera.
On the pictures, however, the bright “spotlights” on the UFO, which to the viewers’ eyes had looked much, much brighter than the lights on the airplane, were hardly discernible. The triangular shape of the UFO, clearly visible to the naked eye, was also lost on the film. At the same time, the airplane lights came out brighter than those of the UFO, appearing just the way they had looked from the ground, even though the UFO was much closer to the observers than the airplane. Laboratory experiments show that this was likely due to the effect of infrared light around the UFO, which can cause even such an object to disappear altogether in a photograph. This could be one reason why so few usable pictures were received by investigators during the Belgian wave, and why bona fide UFO pictures are not as common as one might expect.
Witness drawings have an important role to play, encapsulating details imprinted in the memories of observers immediately after their sightings. Investigators can then make comparisons between renditions made in different locations at different times, or by multiple witnesses to the same event from different vantage points—all by people who don’t know each other. “The day will come, undoubtedly, when the phenomenon will be observed with the technological means necessary that won’t leave a single doubt about its origin,” General De Brouwer commented recently, with assurance. In the meantime, something physically, technologically real, yet completely unknown to any of us, repeatedly inserted itself into the skies over Belgium. We don’t know where it was from, where it was going, or why it was there. But the fact of its existence is remarkable enough and a sufficient challenge to those of us below, unable to do a thing about it.
CHAPTER 2
The UAP Wave over Belgium
by Major General Wilfried De Brouwer (Ret.)
On November 29, 1989, when I was Head of Operations of the Belgian Air Staff, a total of 143 sightings were reported in a small area around Eupen, Belgium, thirty kilometers (nineteen miles) east of the city of Liège and eleven kilometers (seven miles) west of the German border. Some reported sightings were witnessed by more than one person, which means that at least 250 people described extraordinary UAP activity, with most reports occurri
ng after sunset.
The weather was clear with open skies and good visibility. Two federal policemen, Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert Von Montigny, made the most important report. At 5:15 p.m., while patrolling on the road between Eupen and the German border, they saw a nearby field lit with such intensity that they could read the newspaper in their car. Hovering above the field was a triangular craft with three spotlights beaming down and a red flashing light in the center. Without making a sound, it moved slowly toward the German border for about two minutes and then suddenly turned back toward the city of Eupen. The policemen followed. Other independent witnesses reported that they saw the strange object along the same road. It remained over the town of Eupen for approximately thirty minutes and was seen by numerous additional witnesses.
Drawing of sighting by two witnesses near Lake Gileppe, from the side and from underneath. SOBEPS archives
A witness in Eupen also drew the craft from two perspectives. SOBEPS archives
The object then proceeded to Lake Gileppe, where it remained immobile, hovering for approximately one hour, while Nicoll and Von Montigny sat in their car on a nearby hill and witnessed an extraordinary spectacle. The craft repeatedly emitted two red light beams with a red ball at the spearhead of both beams, in the horizontal plane. Subsequently, the beams disappeared and the red balls returned to the vehicle. A few minutes later, another cycle started, each cycle lasting several minutes. Hubert Von Montigny said it was like a diver shooting an arrow from an underwater gun that slows down at the end of its trajectory and is subsequently retrieved by the diver.1