The UFO Phenomenon

70 years on, family requests removal of Belgian UFO sighting memorial

By T.K. Randall
October 5, 2025 ·  5 comments

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) On July 21st of that year, paratrooper Marin Vandercruyssen - who was 18 at the time - famously witnessed a formation of five silver discs hovering silently over the E40 at Lotenhulle near Aalter.

The young man wasn't the only person to see the spectacle, either, as at least 20 other motorists had also pulled up at the side of the road to get a better look at the strange objects above them.

The incident itself didn't make the news until 2004 when Vandercruyssen finally came forward with his story. Although local officials were initially skeptical, after tracking down some of the other witnesses, they eventually accepted that the incident had really happened.

To mark the event, a memorial stone was placed at the scene of the sighting, which included the date of the incident as well as Vandercruyssen's name and photograph.Now, however, the stone has been removed on a permanent basis following a request by the man's family as they no longer wanted to be associated with the sighting.

Vandercruyssen himself sadly died back in 2020.

It marks an end to one of Belgium's most enduring UFO mysteries and one about which many questions remain - especially concerning the nature and origin of the silver discs.

As things stand, it seems unlikely that we will ever know for sure what they really were.

Source: vrt.be | Comments (5)

Tags: UFO