Belgian wave
A wave of triangular-craft reports; the Belgian Air Force scrambled F-16s.
1990 CE · 50.60, 5.57 · status: unexplained
The account
The air force released radar data and, unusually, cooperated openly with civilian investigators.
The researched reading
A long wave with many witnesses and an unusually open Air Force. The radar evidence proved weak and the famous photo was a fake, but some police sightings remain unexplained.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | Many triangle reports fit aircraft, helicopters, and bright stars and planets seen during a wave of heightened attention. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 15% | Media coverage and the famous photo created expectation and contagion over two years. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 14% | Some close-range sightings by police officers of a large, silent, slow triangle remain unexplained. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 12% | The F-16 radar locks of 30–31 March were analysed by physicist Auguste Meessen and others as artefacts of temperature inversion and radar processing. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 10% | The iconic Petit-Rechain triangle photo was confessed as a styrofoam fake in 2011. |
| Secret human technology | 5% | US stealth aircraft were suggested, but the US denied flights and the F-117 does not fit slow hovering. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 4% | Little points to an unknown natural phenomenon. |
Official position: The Belgian Air Force released radar data and could not identify the objects; it cooperated openly with investigators.
How the account grew
Reports of low, silent triangles over Belgium from November 1989 grew through repeated media appeals by SOBEPS into thousands of reports, a radar-chase night and an iconic photograph, which its maker admitted in 2011 was a painted foam model.
| Year | Who | Added |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Witnesses in Eupen; SOBEPS appeals in the press | 143 people report a large low triangular craft with lights beneath, most more than a week later after media appeals. |
| 1990 | Belgian Air Force report | On 30 March two F-16s attempt nine interceptions of radar targets and get brief locks; the pilots never see anything. |
| 1990 | Anonymous photographer (the Petit-Rechain photo) | A black triangle with three corner lights, examined by several labs without a firm conclusion, becomes the wave's emblem. |
| 1992 | Marc Hallet, La Vague OVNI Belge ou le triomphe de la désinformation | Argues the wave was mostly a mass delusion amplified by SOBEPS. |
| 1993 | Pierre Magain and Marc Remy, Physicalia Magazine | Conclusions diverge from SOBEPS; suggest social scientists were better placed to study it. |
| 2011 | Patrick Maréchal on RTL | The Petit-Rechain photographer says it was a styrofoam triangle with torches in the corners, made to fool workmates. (dropped: The photograph as evidence.) |
| 2016 | Brian Dunning, Skeptoid | The F-16 locks were on each other and other returns were Bragg scattering; the wave is described as psychosocial. |
Connections in the atlas
- Montreal Bonaventure Hotel sighting
- Philip J. Klass
- Petit-Rechain photograph
- Eupen gendarmes' sighting
- Cosford / Shawbury triangle
- Kean, 'UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record'