Sighting waveBelgian Triangle Wave (29 November 1989 – April 1990)
A five-month wave of triangular-craft sightings over Belgium was tracked on the night of 30–31 March 1990 by ground radar at Glons and Semmerzake and by airborne F-16 radar; the Belgian Air Force released the radar data and gun-camera imagery publicly.
What's documented
Beginning the evening of 29 November 1989 over Eupen, Belgium, gendarmes Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert von Montigny were among the first official witnesses to a slow-moving, low-altitude triangular craft. Over the following five months, the Belgian gendarmerie collected more than 2,000 written reports. On the night of 30–31 March 1990, two F-16s from the Belgian Air Force’s 1st Wing at Beauvechain were vectored to intercept targets that had been confirmed by NATO radar at Glons and Semmerzake. Both F-16s’ AN/APG-66 radars achieved lock at one point; lock was broken almost immediately, then re-acquired and broken several times over the course of an hour. Maj. Gen. Wilfried De Brouwer, the Belgian Air Force’s Chief of Operations, held a press conference confirming the events and releasing radar tracks publicly — a step taken by no other Western military with respect to a UFO investigation in the 20th century.
Notable & intriguing
-
On the night of 30–31 March 1990, two Belgian Air Force F-16AM aircraft were vectored to intercept targets detected simultaneously by NATO ground radar at Glons and Semmerzake and by airborne F-16 radar; the targets achieved acceleration peaks of 40 g, beyond the structural tolerance of any known crewed aircraft.
Belgian Air Force official report, 11 July 1990; Maj. Gen. Wilfried De Brouwer, Chief of Operations, press conference, 11 July 1990
-
The Belgian Air Force, under Chief of Operations Maj. Gen. Wilfried De Brouwer, publicly released the F-16 radar tracks and the official investigation conclusions — the only Western military authority to do so during the 20th century with respect to a UFO investigation.
Belgian Ministry of Defence report, 11 July 1990; SOBEPS, *Vague d'OVNI sur la Belgique*, vols. 1–2, 1991/1994
-
Belgian gendarmes Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert von Montigny filed the first formal triangular-craft report at 19:15 on 29 November 1989 in Eupen; over the next five months the gendarmerie collected 2,000+ written witness statements, the largest single national-police UFO archive ever assembled in Western Europe.
Belgian Gendarmerie reports, 1989–1990; SOBEPS, Société Belge d'Étude des Phénomènes Spatiaux, archives