THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP|ENTITY ENCOUNTER REPORT

Two off-duty Algerian soldiers, already dreading punishment for slipping into town without permission, were walking back to base under a full moon near Tindouf when a light came toward them across the Sahara. They dropped behind a sand hillock and watched it close to within 4.5 meters: an object some 9 meters across, hovering silently a meter and a half off the ground, lit like nothing they recognized — and, as they finally broke and ran, something “meager” and indistinct climbed out of it behind them.

The account reached the record only because one of the two men, more than three years later, wrote directly to French UFO researcher Patrick Gross — in phonetic French, his second language — to finally unburden himself of an experience neither man had dared tell anyone at the time, for fear of being thought crazy.

Date: July 28, 1998

Sighting Time: 01:00 AM

Day/Night: Early morning, before dawn (full moon; visibility described as good)

Location: Approximately 5 kilometers from the town of Tindouf, Algerian Sahara

Urban or Rural: Rural — open desert

No. of Entity(‘s): 1

Entity Type: Undetermined — the source itself does not commit to a category

Entity Description: Seen only briefly, from roughly 30 meters while fleeing; described as a “meager” (thin/gaunt) figure that could not be clearly made out, with a small bump on its head; no further detail given

Hynek Classification: CE-III (Close Encounter III) — close-range observation of a craft with an associated animate being

Duration: Undocumented

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A hovering craft approximately 9 meters across, silent apart from a sound the witness compared to a simple ventilator; equipped with a front light and a distinct rear light, a light on top and one below (both described by the witness as beautiful), and “windows” with darker or obscured lighting

Shape of Object(s): Undocumented — the source describes the craft’s lighting scheme in detail but does not describe its overall shape

Size of Object(s): Almost 9 meters (roughly 30 feet)

Color of Object(s): Front and rear lights unlike ordinary lights the witness had seen before; one light projected downward in what he described as a “square” beam; additional lights above and below, both called beautiful

Distance to Object(s): 4.5 meters at closest approach

Height & Speed: Hovered approximately 1.50 meters above ground level; no speed given

Number of Witnesses: 2 (the reporting witness and one army comrade; only the reporting witness’s account is directly recorded)

Special Features/Characteristics: No engine noise, only a sound compared to a simple ventilator; full moon provided good visibility; witnesses were off-duty and had left base without authorization, initially fearing they were being searched for by their own chief rather than encountering anything anomalous; neither witness told anyone for years afterward, for fear of being considered crazy

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: Patrick Gross, ufologie.net / patrickgross.org (catalog entry URECAT-000086); account received directly from the witness by email, December 11, 2001

Summary/Description: While serving in the Algerian army, a soldier and a comrade, returning from an unauthorized trip into Tindouf at 1:00 AM on July 28, 1998, hid behind a sand hillock as an intensely lit, roughly 9-meter craft approached to within 4.5 meters and hovered silently 1.5 meters off the ground. As the two men fled, the witness looked back and saw a small, indistinct figure emerge from the craft before he kept running. Neither man reported the experience for years, for fear of being disbelieved.

Related Cases: Undocumented — source does not reference other cases

Detailed Report

The account reached researcher Patrick Gross as an unsolicited, first-hand email on December 11, 2001 — more than three years after the events it describes. The witness explained that he had searched online for information about UFOs, found Gross’s site and its published testimonies, and, after some hesitation, decided to unburden himself of an experience that had stayed with him. Because Algerians typically speak Arabic and write French, if at all, as a secondary language, the witness wrote in phonetic French, which Gross rendered into standard, readable French for the catalog. No field investigation was conducted.

At the time, the witness was serving in the Algerian army, stationed near Tindouf in the Algerian Sahara. On July 28, 1998, at around 1:00 AM, he and a fellow soldier were walking back toward base after an unauthorized trip into town — a detail that matters to the account’s opening moments, since when a light first appeared moving toward them, their first instinct was fear that they were being searched for by their own commanding officer, not that they were seeing anything unusual. They ducked behind a sand hillock to avoid being seen.

The light kept approaching, closing to within about 4.5 meters of their hiding place. What they found themselves looking at, in the witness’s words, resembled something out of a science-fiction film — imposing and, despite the circumstances, beautiful. He estimated the object’s size at almost 9 meters, hovering roughly 1.5 meters above the ground. It carried a light at its front and a different one at its rear, along with a light on top and another below, both of which he singled out as beautiful in their own right. One of the lights projected downward and appeared to cast a “square” beam or section onto the ground beneath the craft. The craft also had what the witness called “windows,” showing darker or obscured lighting he could not further characterize. There was no engine noise of any kind — only a sound he compared to an ordinary ventilator or fan.

Unable to hold their position any longer, the two men broke from cover and ran. The witness looked back once, by his account from roughly 30 meters away, and saw that the object had come to rest near a rise or embankment in the terrain. In that same glance, he saw something emerge from the craft — a “meager,” indistinct figure he could not make out clearly, except that it appeared to have a small bump on its head. He turned and ran the rest of the way without looking back again.

He was careful to note, in relaying the story to Gross, that the night had a full moon and that visibility had been good throughout — offered, in context, as support for the account’s reliability rather than as an attempt to explain the sighting away. Neither he nor his fellow soldier told anyone what they had seen for years afterward, both men afraid of being thought crazy if they spoke up.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Soldiers of Tindouf — Algeria 1998 and a Three-Year Silence

Classification Notes: CE-III is appropriate here, since both a craft and an associated entity were reported within the same continuous encounter — but the entity itself was seen only briefly and from a much greater distance (roughly 30 meters, while fleeing) than the craft (4.5 meters), a distinction worth keeping in mind when weighing the two halves of the account.
Source Chain Assessment: The case comes from a first-hand email the witness sent directly to Patrick Gross more than three years after the sighting, written in phonetic French and rendered readable by Gross for cataloging. No field investigation was conducted, and the second witness’s account is not independently recorded — it survives only as relayed by the primary witness.
Translation Note: The source’s description of where the object settled — rendered here as near “a rise or embankment” — reflects an ambiguous phrase in the original account; it is preserved in general terms rather than resolved into an invented specific.
Corroborating Conditions: The witness’s own emphasis on the full moon and good visibility that night was offered to support the account’s reliability, not to explain the sighting away — a detail worth weighing alongside the men’s admitted fear of being disbelieved, which kept them silent for years.
Physical & Evidentiary Weight: No physical trace evidence, photograph, or independently recorded second statement exists. The case rests entirely on one witness’s delayed written account of an experience he says he shared with another person.
Entity Ambiguity: The source itself never commits to a description beyond “a meager ‘thing'” with a small head-bump, glimpsed briefly at distance. This archive follows the source in leaving Entity Type undetermined rather than assigning it to a familiar category — such as “Grey” or “Humanoid” — the witness himself never used.

The Tindouf case is, in the end, one man’s carefully worded letter to a researcher he’d never met, describing a night he and a friend had kept to themselves for more than three years. There is no investigation to weigh it against, no photograph, no second voice — only a detailed, consistent description and the plain admission that fear of ridicule, not indifference, is what kept it quiet for so long.