2007-11-18 - Brussels (Belgium) - Sphere

Formation of spheres over Brussels

I have always been interested in the ufo phenomenon, but I was always sceptical about observations of spheres during day- or nighttimes, as reflections, birds, etc. can betray the human eye so easily. That was until today.

At exactly 12:05 noon time I was standing outside in the garden, looking roughly eastwards, when I observed a loose formation of 5 or 6 shining identical spheres heading from the South East towards the North West (I was so fixed on the phenomenon that I simply forgot to count the number of spheres, but I am sure there were at least five of them).

The sky was perfectly clear, blue with no clouds, and with an almost unlimited visibility, with the sun shining in the South (noontime) and a light surface wind coming from the North East. Some contrails of aircraft, as well as the aircraft themselves were clearly visible at high cruising altitude.

The spheres were reflecting the sunlight at their backsides (sun side) as if they were from polished aluminium.

The formation was visible during approximately 25 seconds. During that time of observation they travelled trough an arc of view of approximately 110 degrees (because of their relatively high speed, I did not have the opportunity to pick up my camera inside the house). The formation itself stayed together within a field of view of approximately 25 degrees, but their movements were very erratic, overtaking each other with brisk accelerations, and then slowing down again, and with brisk changing of directions over about 10 to 15 degrees deviation from the groups heading, before regaining the general track. During the observation the group travelled at an elevation of approximately 50 degrees above the horizon. They left no contrails behind them.

There was no audible sound until the silence was disturbed by an airliner that had just departed from Brussels International Airport (about 8 km away), departing from runway 25R, turning to the North West as a standard instrument departure towards the Nikki, Costa or Koksy VOR. At that moment the group of spheres was about to disappear behind the roofs of the houses North of my location. The airliner turned towards the general direction of the spheres but never passed in front of them from my point of view, so it was impossible to have any form of reference towards their distance and dimensions. In my opinion the spheres must have been visible from the cockpit of that airliner (especially from the co-pilot’s position) although they seemed a lot higher and faster.

As I said, I had no reference, no cloud base, and they didn't pass under or over any contrail present, but if you allow me a rough estimate, I would say that if the diameter of the spheres were around 20 feet, I would estimate their altitude at around 15000 feet, but that is only a guess.

These objects were certainly no balloons (too fast and against the wind direction), no birds at altitude (light reflection, far too fast, and not the same flight behaviour) and seemed clearly under intelligent control. What I found the most stunning was the brisk acceleration and deceleration when they were changing their relative positions. As they flew over a densely populated area it seems almost impossible that no other person should have made the same observation. By the way, just after the spheres disappeared behind the roofs of the neighbouring houses, I phoned my wife who was at work at that time, a couple of km North of my location (at that moment they should also still have been visible from there) but I could not make immediate contact, so I have nobody to confirm my observation. As these spheres were crossing straight trough the Brussels TMA and Control Area, I wonder if the air traffic controllers would have given a departure clearance to any airliner if they should have been visible on their radar screens!