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March 30-31, 1990 - The Belgium F-16 UFO Chase
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The Belgian UFO wave is often considered one of those landmark events in UFOlogy. SUNlite has published quite a few articles demonstrating that there are reasons to question the events as described. Even more damning was the recent revelation that the only good photograph taken of a Belgian Triangle was a hoax.
However, there is one part of the wave that has reached almost mythic proportions thanks to television shows like Unsolved Mysteries and books like Leslie Kean’s UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government
Officials Go On the Record. This event is the March 30-31 attempted interception of UFOs by two Belgian Air Force F-16s. For some reason certain examinations of this event are ignored or omitted from these presentations. This is probably because these studies do not appear in English and are not widely known.
I intend to attempt to present the events of March 30-31 in a manner for everyone to understand what happened and, hopefully, demonstrate that the case is not as exotic as claimed by some of these presentations.
Visual sightings
Prior to March 30th, the Belgian Air Force (BAF) had come to an agreement that they would send fighters up to intercept UFOs if there were sightings that could be confirmed. They had already done so twice before March 30th but were unsuccessful in intercepting any UFOs.
On the night of March 30th, starting around 2300 local time, reports came in from a gendarme (Marechal des logis Alain Renkin) in the town of Ramilles. At first it was a single luminous point in the western sky that changed color. Later, two other points were identified and they formed a triangle in the sky. According to Joel Mesnard:
The most luminous of the three points of light continued to withdraw slowly towards Gembloux. The upper point was visible towards Thorembais-Saint Trond (due west), while the third point was towards Chaumont-Gistoux (between NW and WNW).1
Other patrols nearby now began to notice the lights in the same general locations of the sky. Mr Renkin also began to report another set of lights in the form of a triangle below the main triangle he first observed.
All of these reports precipitated the arrival of Captain Jaques Pinson, who was second-in-command of the Wavre Gendarmerie brigade. He confirmed the sightings. According to the reports, Pinson reported the lights to be like large stars only they were constantly changing colors.
Meanwhile, the radar at Glons began to pick up radar contacts in the area that were drifting slowly westward. These contacts were picked up by the Semmerzake radar. Because of the radar confirmation of the visual sightings, it was decided that the F-16s at Beauvechain be sent up to investigate the intruder.
The F-16 radar
The F-16 was fitted with an AN/APG-66 pulse-doppler radar which is used to track airborne targets. The radar operates in several modes depending upon what the pilot requires. They would use the scan mode to locate targets and a target tracking mode to “lock-on” to the target. The scanning mode provides various beam widths in front of the aircraft. Based on the images of the display that have been presented, the beam width appeared to be set at its widest mode of 60 degrees.
The initial version of the radar used by the Belgian Air Force was eventually upgraded to a later version in 1992 because of several problems. One was a high number of false alarm returns that could not be corrected. While this problem did not play a significant role in the events that night, it has been suggested that one or more of the contacts registered may have been this type of return.
The F-16 interception
Shortly after midnight, the F-16s took off in an effort to intercept the UFOs. However, instead of heading towards Ramilles or north of their air base where the initial radar contact was detected, the F-16s were sent to the southwest of Brussels near the town of Soignies.
What transpired over the next forty minutes is hard to determine because the studies and radar data are not widely available. Professor Auguste Meessen has the data and presented some of it on his web site. Although it is in French, one can get the general idea of his article using translation software. It is too bad that the study performed by Salmon and Gilmard of the Belgian Royal Military Academy is not available. I attempted to obtain a copy from several people but it is apparently unavailable because it was a confidential report. However, in Meessen’s discussion, we do have an image that comes from that report.
Some may find the map confusing but a bit of careful examination and comparison to the transcript that was also available can help make things a bit easier to understand. I hope to go through each leg of the F-16 flight.
I would like to point out that these aircraft and radar contact positions are all approximate based on the Salmon-Gilmard map and Meessen’s plot. The ground radar contacts are based on the pilot-CRC transcript, which seems to have been part of the Lambrecht’s report. The purpose is only to show the general locations, what the pilots were chasing, and what the ground radars were describing.
Time 0008 - 0010
As the F-16s flew into the area east of Soignies they were being directed towards a contact (white shaded circle in the image at lower left) that was in the vicinity of Enghien and Halle. The controller gave them directions to the contact, which was supposedly at 10,000 feet. The F-16s could not see or detect any craft.
Time 0010-0013
The F-16s, being directed by CRC, can not make any contact visually or with their radar despite flying over/near the contacts (white shaded areas). As the F-16s travel south, they obtained a visual contact but it was a bright flashing light on the ground (star symbol at bottom of image). About the same time, a contact is registering in the area of Tubize and Halle. The F-16s turn north again to find that target.
Time 0013-0015
At time 0013, the F-16s resumed their flight north to find the contacts registering on the ground radar. As the F-16 approached the area, it finally found a radar contact at 9000 feet flying at 310 knots (red markers). The contact would disappear quickly. Meanwhile, the intercept controller tried to get the F-16 to make a sharp turn because the F-16 flew past their contact (white shaded areas). While this contact was behind them, the F-16 radar caught a contact further away to the north (red marker).
Time 0015-0017
The F-16s turn around again to go after the contact reported by the controller near Nivelles that they had overshot. The transcript is not very clear but control seems to have lost this contact and the F-16s travel south. They must have recorded a contact of some kind (red marker) because it is marked in the Salmon-Gilmard map but not recorded in the transcript.
Control turned the F-16s around again to go back to another contact that was being seen in the same general area as the previous contacts.
Time 0017-0018
After being turned around, the F-16s fly by the latest contact without any indication they had seen it visually or on their radar. This results in another 180 degree turn. Sometime during this maneuver, the jets see a civilian aircraft and wonder aloud if this might be what they were chasing. It appears that the F-16s are flying in circles looking for some very elusive contacts.
Time 0018-0020
The F-16s now get a new contact (white shaded area) as they turn towards the southeast. Again, they fly by it without seeing anything or obtaining a radar contact.
After flying past it, they are, again, asked to turn around towards the west.
Time 0020-0024
The jets fly west but have no contacts and the controller has nothing either. They turn around again and head east. As they head east, the F-16s get two contacts (red markers). One is described as “possible” by the pilot. Even though they obtain some contacts briefly, they fail to observe anything visually.
Time 0024-0027
The transcript never mentions any contacts by the F-16s but the Salmon-Gilmard map plots two during this period.
They must have been brief contacts. The controlling station reported they did have a contact to the west (white shaded area), which prompted another turn around towards that direction. The pilot would report that this contact was “civilian traffic”. As the planes head towards the southwest, they report seeing a flashing light.
Time 0027-0030
This time period has the jets flying towards the southwest to investigate the light. They would pass over the light
(white star symbol) for a position fix. The report states that this turned out to be a smokestack with a flashing light. This is also the same flashing light seen at time 0013. After identifying the light, they turned towards the east again. Salmon and Gilmard register two contacts (red markers) but the pilots make no mention of them in the transcript. Around time 0030, intercept control informs the pilots they have a contact to the north-northeast (white shaded area).
Time 0030-0035
The map on page 8 is based on Auguste Meessen’s track from his web site. The F-16s proceed eastward looking for the elusive UFOs. Glons gives one contact (shaded area) that seems to match several of the contacts reported by the F-16s (red markers). However, the contact eludes the F-16s and simply disappears.
Time 0035+
At this point The F-16s flight path is not clearly known. They maneuver about looking for contacts and, like the previous half-hour of flight operations, can never locate anything solid even though they do obtain some lock-ons.
The gendarmes were confused
During this time period, the F-16s are now flying in the area that visual observations were made. The Lambrecht’s report states that the gendarmerie saw the F-16s fly right by their UFOs without noticing them. This implies that what they were reporting as UFOs were not visible to the pilots.
Aftermath
In the summer of 1990, the Lambrechts report, written by the Air staff of the Belgian air force, was released describing what transpired that night and some conclusions.
The report gave the impression that something was in the sky with the F-16s that night. It did note that the pilots failed to see anything visually. However, it also highlighted how reliable they considered the reports from gendarmes.
Over the years, the number of interceptions and “lock-ons” performed by the F-16s have become exaggerated. Many contacts were registered as noted in this article. However, it seems that while there were dozens of contacts observed by the F-16 radar, the actual number of lock-ons, according to the Lambrechts report, was just three.
Salmon-Gilmard
In 1992, Major Salmon and civil engineer Gilmard of the Belgian Royal Military Academy, released a study that analyzed the radar data. They concluded that on three occasions, the contact registered by one F-16 was the other F-16. They also felt that many of the contacts were nothing more than radar angels/false targets and ground clutter. At one point a contact was registered going into the ground indicating that it was some form of reflection. The F-16 radar data began to lose its luster. Despite this informative study being completed, it is not widely published and rarely mentioned.
Auguste Meessen
Auguste Meessen, a proponent for UFO events being some form of exotic craft, added to the solution by writing a paper describing how “moist air cells/convection bubbles” were the cause of many of the radar echoes that night. Meessen traced the passage of these “moist air cells” using the radar data and demonstrated how they drifted in the same general direction of the winds that evening. This is something noted in the Lambrecht’s report.
The elusive nature of the contacts the F-16s were ordered to pursue and the lack of any visual contacts indicates these were all probably caused by the atmospheric conditions that night. Meessen suggested that some of the sources of these “moist air cells” had to do with the industrial centers. He specifically mentioned how smoke stacks could create their own micro-climates, which might produce these convection bubbles.
Des masses d’air chaud, passant séparément les unes des autres entre les gendarmes et le ciel étoilé, devaient agir comme des lentilles.3
I translate this to read:
These moist air masses could come from factory chimneys or power plants.
It is interesting to note that the F-16s kept flying around the same general area for about fifteen minutes chasing contacts that the ground radar stated were present. All they had to show for it was a smoke stack with a bright flashing light.
This was not the only large smoke stack in the area. A quick view of Google earth revealed several smoke stacks and cooling towers in the area between Tubize and Brussels, which were just east (upwind) of the area where the F-16s spent the first fifteen minutes of their search.
Professor Meessen also suggested that the police officers mistook stars as UFOs because of these unusual atmospheric conditions. He pointed towards the star Sirius as the prime suspect in his paper.
Along with a lengthy discussion of these moist air cells, Professor Meessen mentions one contact that he labeled as “unidentified” because it lacked a transponder signal. This contact flew a straight path between Brussels and Liege at an average speed of about 450-500 knots (<600 mph). The F-16s were never vectored towards it indicating that the radar operators probably knew what it was. There is reason to suspect that this was probably just an aircraft, which had a malfunctioning transponder or had turned it off for some reason.
Closing the book
The Belgian AF F-16 chase has become staple in the UFO literature as some form of extraordinary event when it really was not. For some reason, the work of Meessen and Salmon-Gilmard is little known, overlooked, ignored, or left out of the literature.
What this case really demonstrates is an application of Phil Klass’ UFOlogical principle #9:
Whenever a light is sighted in the night skies that is believed to be a UFO and this is reported to a radar operator, who is asked to search his scope for an unknown target, almost invariably an “unknown” target will be found. Conversely, if an unusual target is spotted on a radarscope at night that is suspected of being a UFO, an observer is dispatched or asked to search for a light in the night sky, almost invariably a visual sighting will be made.4
In this instance, the gendarmes mistook scintillating stars for UFOs and the radar operators, expecting to see a return corresponding to the visual sightings, found targets they normally would have ignored.
Like these radar contacts, this UFO case is nothing more than a phantom, which disappears upon close examination.
Quelle: SUNlite 3/2012
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