What happened
On the Aachen-Eupen road the gendarmes saw a field lit "like a football field." Above it was a large triangular platform with three downward lights and a pulsing red light in the centre. Their dispatcher said he saw it too. Wikipedia, citing Brian Dunning of Skeptoid, says 143 people claimed to have seen a UFO that night. However, "most of these reports were submitted over a week after the purported event," after media appeals. Dunning argues the original object, described with a "stick" and turbine noise, fits a UH-1 helicopter.