Crop circle at Boechout (Flandres, Belgium) |
 Crop circle at Huise (Flandres, Belgium) |
(An investigation from Alain H, UFOCOM, July 26, 1998)
Crop circle at Boechout (Flandres, Belgium) |
Crop circle at Huise (Flandres, Belgium) |
On July 22 1998, UFOCOM received a tip (thanks Godelieve!) stating that a "crop circle" could be seen at Boechout (Flandres / Belgium) :
"At Boechout, province of
Antwerp, zip code 2530, street : Melkkuipstraat. People belonging
to a hot-air balloon team observed crop circles. These were right
in the middle of a field. They look like being aligned. There
were two large circles (diameter ca. 10 meters) and three
smaller ones.
In the first large circle, the wheat plants were laying flat
" clockwise ", while they were laying counterclockwise
in the second large circle. Pictures were taken from the ground,
but they are not very helpful!"
This piece of information was immediately transmitted to one of our best investigator in Belgium, Alain H. On July 26, a UFOCOM party was sent there to investigate.
We soon learnt that crop circles were indeed visible at two different locations, 70 km apart. The first ones were seen at Boechout and the second ones at Huise. Here is the report written by our investigator: Alain H. :
On Sunday, we visited both sites: Boechout and Huise, near Oudernarde, where another crop circle was reported on July 22nd. A local Flemish TV channel reported on the Boechout circles while VTM (Vlaams Televisie Maatschapij; note: another Flemish TV Channel) reported twice on both sites.
At Boechout, we got very little time to investigate. However, before being "kicked off" the field by the farmer, we had the timeto realize that the circles were "faked". First, the plants were laying flat in several directions. Second, the examination of the pictures taken by TV reporters revealed that the symmetry of the "traces" was quite uneven...
The CCRU (Centre Consultatif de Recherche Ufologique from Mr et Mme Sosson et De Gelas), the members of which spoke a more fluent Dutch than we did, were more lucky. They were allowed to make measurements.
At the second site, the farmer realized that it would be more clever to collaborate and pass on to us the available information. His field is enclosed by barriers and police lines... With only a single way left to the " David Star "...
A paper came out this week-end in "Het Laatste Nieuws", with 3 pictures of the Huise "circles". A farmer explained that to get such a "drawing", one just has to spread fertilizer. Plants having received the extra-fertilization will grow faster, even too fast, hence they will be more fragile. With the first strong rain, they will fall down under their own mass, to yield the expected drawing. This article was on one full page of the newspaper.
We rapidly found that the "drawings" have been man-made by practical jokers. I took stereo-pictures of and at various places...
- The drawing consists in three large - but partly uncompleted - circles. It is easy to understand how they were drawn. To start, one needs to insert a wood piece (or anything else) in between two rows of plants.... Then, you turn around up to 270°. To get a nice "drawing", you must stop at 270°, come back to the "origin" of the drawing and push the plants left up in the last quarter of circle... The external limits of the circle are thus perfectly drawn. May be too perfectly drawn...
- At the first place, the farmer said that he saw a "hole" at the center of the circle. We therefore looked for similar traces here. Three types of traces were found. First, 2 cm-deep holes (3 x 2 cm) were found. They had slanted edges. Second, close to the holes, one easily saw that an "object" was strongly pushed over the soil, rendering it "dusty". Finally, the third mark was that of one of the extremities of the object used to push the wheat plants. The object, most probably, was 5 cm-wide. It was found where the drawing has been initiated. A bit apart, one can also see a place where this extremity hit a big chunk of soil, generating a very clear wound in nearby wheat plant.
We can definitively conclude that the examined circle is a fake. The CCRU, while still pursuing its investigations, concludes that the circle at Boechout is a fake, and that at Huise might be a "true" one.
After this day of investigation, I rather tend to believe that both circles are faked...
Alain, July 27 1998
Two days later, we learnt that our investigator was right. The VRT (ex-BRT) officially announced that they made the crop-circle at HUISE, in preparation of a show entitled "Droomfabriek" ("The dream factory") to be broadcast during the holiday season. All data are published on their web site at: http://www.tv1.be/tv1/droomfabriekstunt.htm The goal, of course, was to "advertize" for this show, efficiently and at low cost! However, no data aree provided for the crop-circl at Boechout.
Once more, the above story proves that most UFO investigation groups have very limited capabilities to investigate the UFO question and the related problems. Being a soccer supporter and a soccer player are two different stories! …I do not want to be unpleasant when I speak so. Most of these "investigators" (?) are really nice people. But I just want to ask them to be more objective and more logical. They owe this to their readers! They owe this to the other UFO investigators! This is the only way to go to try to get debunkers listening to serious studies on the UFO phenomenon. As often said, all that glitters is not gold!… I also have to be sincerely sympathetic with the few people who released "mystic" interpretations for crop circles! Quick! Go to : Belgium Crop Circle Update (Boechout & Huise) July 1998 - Page 4 before the page is removed! Again, I do not want to make fun of these guys, but I want you to realize how nonobjective are several UFO investigation groups!
I also like to ask to the folks at the Flemish TV whether they believe it was clever idea to use the money of the Belgian citizen just to make circles in wheat fields? Can't they do better? Besides, can this be interpreted as another way to hide more interesting data from us? During the Belgian wave, in the 90s, Flemish representatives asked the government whether it was really serious to spend money from Belgian tax payers to investigate a phenomenon which occurred only on the French-speaking part of the country! I leave it upon you to appreciate the value of this politico-politician statement, colored with separatism.... Especially considering that numerous reports were written by Flemish investigators!…
Consequently, if another wave should occur somewhere in Europe, I hope this will not be in Belgium. Obviously, such a situation would certainly lead to enhancing the community stress between dutch and french speaking people in the country!
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