The Black Triangle
UFO Wave over Belgium
Date: November 1989
Location: Belgium
The black triangle UFO, often depicted in science fiction movies, is based on reports made by several Belgians in November of 1989. The Belgian wave included some of the first reports in which individuals reported seeing a black triangle hovering in the sky.
The First Sightings
The first reported sighting was made on November 29, 1989. It was around 17:20 when two sergeant majors of the Belgian Gendarmerie were patrolling the road between Eupen and Kittenis. As the gentlemen were driving down the road, they noticed bright white lights hovering slightly above the side of the road, approximately two hundred meters away from their car. The object was moving slowly, and the officers immediately noticed its dark triangular silhouette.
On each of its corners, the triangular-shaped aircraft had a bright white light and a pulsating red glow in its center. To their amazement, the dark triangle started approaching their vehicle, leaving them in complete shock. As it approached their vehicle, they noticed that although the object was enormous and hovering at a low altitude, it was completely noiseless. Even when the dark triangle was directly overhead, the two patrolmen could not hear any noise. The dark triangle continued flying toward Eupen’s city center, coming to a halt over Gileppe Dam. Its pulsating red glow increased in intensity just before it disappeared into thin air.
Following this extraordinary and strange sighting, the two gentlemen knew that they had to forward this case to the air force. When they contacted the air force base at Liège Bierset, the radio control operators confirmed that there was no air traffic at that time and location. However, they also stated that they had been tracking an unidentified target on their radars, which was also being picked up by two other air force bases, one at Aachen in Germany and the other at Maastricht in the Netherlands. On that day over fifteen reports of a similar nature were made.
The reports kept coming in throughout the month of December. One particular report was made by Belgian Army Lieutenant Colonel Andre Amond. He and his wife were driving toward Gembloux to pick up their son from the railway station. It was at around 18:15 when the couple spotted three bright white lights and a pulsating red light in the center. At the time of the sighting, Amond and his wife were driving through a small wooded area that was completely dark, and thus, they had a clear and unpolluted view of the lights. The lights were moving horizontally, gliding through the sky very slowly and were completely silent. Being a lieutenant in the army, Amond knew full well that there was no military aircraft that slightly resembled what he was seeing before his very eyes.
Amond continued following the lights as they hovered above a farm in Sart Ernage. For a brief moment, the couple lost sight of the object. However, determined to keep on pursuing the lights, he rapidly drove to the other side of the farm. As he did so, he noticed that the lights were still in the sky, and given that he was at the highest point of the street, he had an unobstructed and panoramic view of the phenomenon that was unfolding right before his very eyes. It was at this moment that the encounter took a turn. The three bright lights transformed into one intense light in the center, and the triangular aircraft started descending vertically, directing the bright spotlight toward Amond’s position.
His wife frantically started screaming for Amond to get back in the car and for them to drive away. As he got in the car and started driving away, he looked back at the object, which was now in a horizontal position and the original characteristics of the dark triangle had reemerged; one pulsating red light in the center and three bright white lights at the corners. Shortly after Amond started driving away, the triangle shot up toward the sky and disappeared.
In his witness report, Amond described the object to be twice the size of the moon and was “larger than the head-light of a big transport aircraft.” He also stated that he had felt threatened and unsafe by the object’s presence: “The object with this enormous, anomalous, luminous mass showed itself somewhat aggressive. We heard no engine noise … This object was silent!” 49
Characteristics of the Black Triangle
After Amond witnessed the UFO, he wrote to the Belgian Ministry of Defense, pointing out three characteristics in particular he believed proved that the aircraft he had seen was extraterrestrial in origin.
The first notable characteristic was the speed the triangular UFO was traveling. Amond made a distinction between two points of his sighting. When he first saw the object, it was hovering very slowly, gliding through the sky. As a matter of fact, he had to slow his car down in order to wait for the object to catch up. On the other hand, when he had a panoramic view of the object, he noticed how the object was moving erratically in the sky at a fast speed. The triangular aircraft had also shot up toward the sky, faster than any aircraft he had seen throughout his career in the army.
The second characteristic is that the UFO was completely noiseless. Even when Amond parked his car at a secluded country road, neither he nor his wife could hear any noise being emitted from the UFO, not even when it sped off and disappeared. An interesting point that Amond made to the Ministry of Defense is that although at one point in the encounter the UFO was positioned exactly in front of the bright full moon, it did not reflect the moonlight and was covering it almost entirely. If it were a commercial aircraft, the moonlight would have reflected off of its surface; this characteristic proved that the object had a solid mass, and was not just simply lights.
The third and final point that Amond made was that he could not find an explanation as to what the dark triangle could have been. We must keep in mind that Amond was an experienced Lieutenant Colonel; he was familiar with all the military aircraft. In his letter, he stated that the object could not have been military, a helicopter or a hologram. He was adamant that “some kind of intelligence was involved” (Amond, 1989) and that the aircraft was most definitely extraterrestrial.
The Peak of the Sightings
Although reports were made from December 1989 through April 1990, March 30, 1990, in particular saw an increase in reports. At around 23:00, Belgian gendarme A. Renkin observed three unusual lights moving toward Thorembais-Gembloux from his home at Ramillies. Noticing that these lights were significantly brighter than any star in the sky, positioned in a perfect triangular shape, Renkin contacted the supervisor at the Glons Control Reporting Center. Renkin informed the supervisor that the three lights were changing from red to green to yellow, and he was certain that this was not a commercial or a military aircraft.
The supervisor at Glons Control Reporting Center immediately ordered for a number of gendarmeries to patrol the area where Renkin had seen the lights. Just ten minutes later, Renkin made a second call to the supervisor, as he now started to observe another set of lights moving toward the first triangle. The second lights were also in the shape of a triangle and had the same exact characteristics. Renkin’s sighting was confirmed by the supervisor, who started tracking an unidentified target on radar at the same location where Renkin had reported seeing the lights. Thirty minutes after Renkin’s call, the patrol arrived at the location and immediately noticed the two triangular lights in the sky. They, too, noted that the lights were brighter than the stars and were changing color sequentially. The objects remained in the sky for at least forty-five minutes. It was around 23:45 when one of the triangular objects began carrying out erratic maneuvers and started to approach the second aircraft. The erratic maneuvers were also recorded on the radar back at the air traffic control center.
A second air traffic control center, the Semmerkaze Traffic Center Control / Reporting Post, confirmed the radar sightings, and ordered for the first F-16 fighter jet to be scrambled from Beauvechain Air Force Base. An hour after the first report was made, the lights were still visible and at a stationary position in the sky. The numerous reports, made by multiple individuals, noted that from time to time, the objects would change the intensity of their lights.
The second F-16 fighter jet was scrambled shortly after midnight, and a total of nine interceptions were made by the pilots. From the nine attempts, the pilots were only able to lock down with the object on radar three times. However, later investigations showed that the lock-downs were made with the other F-16 in the sky, and not with the actual UFO they were pursuing. Although the pilots were able to locate the object on radar, no visual contacts were ever made. At one point, the Glons operators informed the pilots that they were above the target, however, not even at this point were the fighter pilots able to visually locate the aircraft.
During the encounter, the pilots noted that the unidentified aircraft would change its speed from 172 miles per hour, to 1,116 miles per hour. They also noted that it would drop from an altitude of nine thousand feet to five thousand feet in just a matter of seconds. At the time of the pursuit, the individuals on the ground were still able to locate the triangular lights, even though the pilots were unable to see them. At around 00:30, many reported seeing the two F-16 fighter jets turning in circles above the triangular UFO. They also noted that one of the triangular aircraft started emitting a bright red light that illuminated the sky, just as it sped into the distance and disappeared.
After several failed attempts to locate the triangular UFOs, the two F-16 fighter jets returned to base. Just minutes later, Captain Pinson who was part of the patrolling team, observed four white lights in the shape of a square. The lights made quick erratic movements before the intensity of the lights dissipated as they disappeared.
The Investigations
At the time of the sightings, Major General Wilfried De Brouwer was the chief of operations of the Belgian Air Staff. De Brouwer stated the following, which excluded all natural explanations: “The National Civil Aviation Authorities replied that no flight plans had been introduced to operate in that area. Normally, flight plans are mandatory for flights between sunset and sunrise, but in cases of military exercises and emergencies (ambulance or police), exceptions can be made for helicopters.
“If an ambulance helicopter had been operating, the pilot should have contacted the relevant air space surveillance authority and communicate the point of departure, point of arrive, intentions, etc.
“Furthermore, that evening, no military exercises had taken place over Belgium .” 50
De Brouwer also provided a number of reasons that further proved that the aircraft was interplanetary. The first was that the shape of the aircraft was unlike any other commercial or military aircraft. The aircraft also was the size of a jumbo jet and was able to hover without emitting any noise. Third, the aircraft was travelling well over five hundred miles per second and it was capable of accelerating from seventy-seven miles per second to over 250 miles per second almost instantly. Finally, the aircraft dropped from an altitude of ten thousand feet to five hundred feet in just five seconds.
In his investigation, De Brouwer also ruled out the possibility that the triangular aircraft could have been a military aircraft from the United Kingdom or the United States. He contacted the militaries of the two countries and inquired if there were any aircraft over Belgium at the time of the sightings. Officials from both countries assured De Brouwer that no aircraft belonging to their air force were in the airspace. It is important to note that before any aircraft enters another country’s airspace, authorization must first be granted.
A report was also made by Captain Pinson, one of the patrolmen who was on site at Thorembais-Gembloux, to investigate the triangle UFO report. Pinson’s report stated that when he looked at the aircraft from a telescope, he was able to make out the dark silhouette of the triangular aircraft and the three bright lights at each of its corners. Pinson also stated that the sky was completely clear and that he and the rest of the gendarmes were able to see the stars very clearly.
Conclusion
The majority of the witness reports were made by high-level officials whose credibility cannot be questioned. The Belgian UFO wave is undoubtedly one of the most convincing cases that proves the existence of extraterrestrial life and the advanced technology that these beings are in possession of. It is for this reason that governments all over the world have the responsibility to take the phenomenon seriously and thoroughly investigate each UFO report.