BRUSSELS (AFP)— An unidentified flying object photographed high in the Belgian sky that puzzled even NASA scientists turns out to have been a fake made out of foam, the man behind the hoax said Tuesday.
Though scientists pored over the picture of a triangular-shaped flying saucer with four lights, allegedly photographed in April 1990 by a young worker, the mystery remained intact until the man's revelation on the RTL-TVI network.
Made of polystyrene in a matter of hours and photographed that night, the picture was released after several sightings of UFOs over Belgium in 1989 and 1990.
Then aged 18, the man identified only as Patrick said he and a few friends "made it, painted it, hung it up and then photographed it".
The photo was the sharpest available to experts in a two-year period in which thousands of people across Belgium reported UFO sightings.
Several days after its release, a Belgian airforce plane was ordered to hunt down the UFOs across the country, but to no avail. Some believed the UFOs were new stealth fighters being tested by NATO.
"It's too easy to fool people, even with a cheap model," said Patrick, adding he had decided it was time to come clean.
NASA 놀래킨 UFO, 조작사진으로 드러나
미국항공우주국 (NASA) 과학자들도 정체를 밝히지 못했던 벨기에 상공에서 촬영된 미확인 비행 물체 (UFO) 사진은 조작된 것으로 밝혀졌다.
지난 화요일, 스스로를 ‘Patrick’이라고 밝힌 한 남성은 친구들과 폴리스티렌을 이용하여 비행물체를 “만들고, 칠하고, 매달고, 사진을 찍은 것”이라고 밝혔다.
문제의 사진은 지난 1990년 4월경에 촬영된 것으로, 댱시 과학자들도 사진에 나온 삼각형 비행 물체가 무엇인지 규명하지 못했다.
사진이 공개되고 나서 벨기에 공군은 비행 물체를 찾기 위해 국가 전역을 조사하였고, 심지어 북대서양 조약 기구 (NATO)에서 실험 중인 스텔스기가 아니냐는 의견도 있었다.
Patrick씨는 이제는 장난을 자백할 시간이라고 밝히면서, 사람들을 속이는 것은 너무 쉬웠다고 소감을 말했다.
