page_title: Belgian UFO wave
section_title: Hoax photograph
hierarchical_section_title: Belgian UFO wave / Hoax photograph
caption_attribution_description: English: Flying triangle claimed to have been photographed on June 15, during the 1990 Belgian UFO Flap, over Wallonia, Belgium. It was posted online in 2003, 13 years after the flapFrançais&#160;: Triangle volant prétendument pris en photo le 15 juin pendant la grande vague ufologique belge de 1990 au-dessus de la Wallonie, Belgique. La photo a été mise en ligne en 2003, 13 ans après la vague
context_page_description: The Belgian UFO wave was a series of sightings of triangular UFOs in Belgium, which lasted from 29 November 1989 to April 1990.
context_section_description: In April 1990, a hoax photo of a triangular object upon which three lights are visible at each corner was taken by an anonymous photographer. Since then, a man named Patrick M. publicly said that it was a hoax picture by him.
  Experts say there is no background in the photograph and no element that would allow calculation of  the object's size or distance from the camera. Wim van Utrecht has reproduced a copy of the photograph with devices. A computer graphics simulation method to reproduce the photograph was developed by a Belgian mathematician, Thierry Veyt at The University of Liège Laboratory of Astrophysics, wherein the apparent "shake" motion, that results in the lights of the craft appearing blurred or out of focus in the photograph contradicts eye-witness statements. This, along with the anonymity of the photographer and fact that the image was not produced publicly until 4 months after the alleged event, also brought the authenticity of the image into question.
  For 20 years, the ufological organization Société belge d'étude des phénomènes spatiaux (SOBEPS) claimed that this picture was genuine. But on 26 July 2011, in an interview for RTL, a Belgian TV channel, Patrick M. explained that it was a hoax.
  In his September 27, 2016 Skeptoid podcast episode titled "The Belgian UFO Wave," author Brian Dunning discussed the photographic evidence and reported that the single photograph turns out to be emblematic of the quality of all the evidence that characterized the Belgian UFO Wave. In 2011, a man named Patrick Maréchal invited Belgian reporters to his home to show them what he and some friends had done at work when the media hype had been at its peak. They had taken a sheet of styrofoam, cut it into a triangle, painted it black, embedded a flashlight in each corner, then hung it from a string. Maréchal still had many photos that they had taken trying to get that one that fooled the world.
caption: A supposed black triangle, 15 June 1990, Wallonia, Belgium. Claimed to have been taken during the UFO wave. A similar photo was taken in Petit-Rechain on 4 April 1990.[4]
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