Lt. Col. Salmon F-16 Radar Trace Report — Night of 30–31 March 1990

Brief

The Salmon report is a 173-page internal Belgian Air Force document assessing radar echoes captured by F-16 interceptors on the night of 30–31 March 1990 — the climax event of the 1989–1990 Belgian UAP wave. Only three pages carry extractable text; the substantive radar analysis in the remaining 170 pages is image-only. A prefatory note added in February 2026 by Belgian researcher Marc Hallet identifies the report as the basis on which SOBEPS-affiliated physicist Auguste Meessen walked back his earlier published conclusion that the echoes could 'only have been generated by a spacecraft from another world.' Hallet characterizes anyone who continues to assert an extraterrestrial cause after the report's release as 'very misinformed or acting in bad faith.'

Metadata

Agency

Belgian Air Force (Force Aérienne Belge)

Release

1990-04-01

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

173 pages

Programs

SOBEPS

Tags

radar, F-16 intercept, Belgium, 1990, Belgian UAP wave, airborne radar, SOBEPS

Key points

• The title page identifies the document as Lt. Col. Salmon's report on radar echoes recorded during Belgian F-16 flights on the night of 30–31 March 1990.p.1
• Marc Hallet's 2026 prefatory note states that a Belgian astrophysicist's inquiry in February 2025 prompted him to obtain the report through Belgian Ministry of Defense administrative channels.p.3
• Professor Meessen, writing for SOBEPS, had previously concluded the radar echoes 'definitively proved they could only have been generated by a spacecraft from another world'; the Salmon report is cited as the basis for his subsequent retraction in a second SOBEPS publication.p.3
• Hallet's note asserts the report demonstrates 'the famous radar echoes obtained during the so-called Belgian UFO wave were in no way caused by any extraterrestrial craft.'p.3
• Hallet states he shared the report with 'several reputable researchers' beginning June 2025, then uploaded it to archive.org in February 2026 for wider dissemination.p.3
• Page 4 carries a dedication to the late Lt. Col. Salmon, indicating he was deceased before the report reached wide public circulation.p.4

Verbatim

• Rapport du Lt. Colonel Salmon au sujet des échos radar enregistrés lors d'un vol de F-16 belges au cours de la nuit du 30 au 31 mars 1990

  p.1

• Le professeur Meessen avait personnellement conclu, dans un ouvrage publié par la SOBEPS, que ces échos prouvaient définitivement qu'ils ne pouvaient avoir été engendrés que par un vaisseau spatial extraterrestre.

  p.3

• les fameux échos radar captés lors de la prétendue vague ovni belge n'ont en aucun cas été causés par un engin extraterrestre

  p.3

• Professor Meessen had personally concluded in a book published by SOBEPS that these echoes definitively proved they could only have been generated by a spacecraft from another world.

  p.3

• the famous radar echoes obtained during the so-called Belgian UFO wave were in no way caused by any extraterrestrial craft

  p.3

• Those who will continue to claim that these radar echoes were caused by an extraterrestrial craft will therefore be considered as very misinformed or acting in bad faith.

  p.3

• A la mémoire de feu le Lt. Col. SALMON

  p.4

Most interesting

• Of 173 total pages, only 3 carry extractable text; the bulk of the radar analysis exists as scanned images only.
• The report was commissioned by the Belgian Ministry of Defense, giving it official government standing rather than civilian research status.
• SOBEPS published two contradictory books on the Belgian wave by the same author — Meessen — with the second retracting the first's extraterrestrial conclusion after he apparently reviewed this report.
• The dedication page confirms Lt. Col. Salmon died before the report received wide public distribution, meaning he could not participate in the public record's reassessment.
• Hallet's February 2026 preface functions as a chain-of-custody statement, logging who held the document and when before archive.org publication.
• The night of 30–31 March 1990 is the most instrumentally documented night of the Belgian UAP wave, with simultaneous ground radar and airborne F-16 radar contacts — making the Salmon report's conclusions consequential for how the entire episode is assessed.