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The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this site is here.
Reference number for this case: 3-Oct-54-Montgenèvre. Thank you for including this reference number in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
[Ref. bb1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors reproduce the following article as having been published in the newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré for October 5, 1954:
"One tends so much to ridicule people who claim to have seen flying saucers or cigars, that very often, the involuntary observers remain silent and reveal their observations only with a little delay. It is the case of several people who saw at Mont Genèvre, Sunday October 3, during almost all the day, the trajectory of a machine which they relate to, given its elongated shape, a flying cigar. The first observation was made by Mr. Roux, gendarme, who was on the slopes of the Chaberton, at 09:30, in the morning. He could very distinctly see the shape of the machine which seemed motionless above his head, at a very high altitude. He followed it during a few moments and alerted six other people who, from Mont Genèvre, could very clearly observe with the naked eye the same machine. For more safety, they were provided with binoculars and continued their observation. The machine moved in the south-western North-East direction and crossed very slowly the sky of Briançon since it crossed the space ranging between the mountains, between 09:30 a.m. and 06:00 p.m., time when it disappeared behind the chain of Montbrison (Les Tenailles)."
"To the unaided eye, in the end of the afternoon, it appeared as a ball of fire. But to the binocular one could extremely well distinguish his elongated and luminous shape; it moved without noise. All the witnesses are unanimous to state that the machine appeared very heavy and that it could not have been a matter of optical phenomenon, nor a balloon..."
"The observations having been made during several hours and by people all different and worthy of faith, namely: Messrs Paulin Balat, deputy mayor, Roux, gendarme, Falconnet, hotel manager, Lucien Moulet, Daubarre, Henry Rignon and Jugy, all were, you can guess, amazed by their disconcerting observation."
The authors comment on that it was a balloon and that the witnesses never said anything different. They add that a balloon is roughly spherical, that it becomes red in the setting sun, and they joke around saying that when a balloon "starts at a supersonic speed, it is that it is violently pulled by a journalistic gust: one say that it is "pressé""! " ("pressé" meand rushed and resembles "Press").
[Ref. lc1:] LUC CHASTAN:
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Database Nr.: 1286 No known official investigation Place of observation: Montgenèvre Department: Hautes Alpes (05) Lat. 44.933 Long. +6.716 Date of observation: 03 October 1954 Time: 09:30 Type of observation: Visual: Distant Number of Witnesses: undetermined number A gendarme being on the slopes of Chaberton first observes an object high in the sky seemingly motionless. It seemed to be a cigar. At the end of one moment the object seeming to remain in its place, the first witness alerts 6 other people who observe it in their turn. The object remained in the sky advancing at the same pace than the moon and always remaining at the same distance from the latter going from the North east towards the South west. It disappeared after 6 p.m. behind the moutains range of Montbrison. Number of object: 1 Type of object: Cigar Color not defined Observed luminosity: Reflects the light No weather indication Physical effects: No Effects on the witness: No Presence of entities: No Sources by ** |
Not looked for yet. Reflection of the moon on an icy cloud layer partly possible, balloon possible.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Montgenèvre, Hautes-Alpes, gendarme, police, multiple, moon, cigare slow, high, motionless, duration
[---] indicates sources which I have not yet checked.
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 7, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 9, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [1]. |
