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The 1954 French flap:

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January 5, 1954, Saint-Martin-de-Crau, Bouches-du-Rhône:

Reference for this case: 5-Jan-54-Saint-Martin-de-Crau.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

Constant Vautravers, an acquointance of the pioneering ufologist Jimmy Guieu, was a journalist at Le Provençal. On January 9, 1954, he published the story of an observation on January 5, 1954, in Saint-Martin-de-Crau. This followed the article in this newspaper about the observation of the Marignane airport on January 4, 1954; which had brought many phone calls to the newspaper, and a visit, of "a Marseille personality well-known in sports and commercial circles" whose name was not given.

The story of this person was given as:

"I was driving by car on the road of the Crau, Tuesday evening, at approximately 10:45, coming back from Arles towards Marseille. In the car, in addition to myself, were my wife and two other people. I add that the night was very dark. Suddenly, as we had just exceeded the agglomeration of Saint-Martin-de-Crau, we saw in the sky, on the left of the road, a large ball of reddish color, similar to an incandescent fire.

"That lasted a few seconds, and the ball disappeared, giving the impression to have slipped by at a vertiginous speed in a direction perpendicular to our, and to have crossed us."

"It remained of the passage of the object only a kind of luminous trail comparable to the gleam of the headlight of car, which floated in the sky a moment before dissolving."

"Arrived to Marseilles, concluded our visitor, we initially thought to let know of the strange vision which we just had, but we were afraid not to be believed. However, the revelations of "La Provence" coincide so much with our own observations that our apprehensions fell. The "flying saucer" which was seen yesterday evening in Marignane could very well renew its mysterious evolutions during the next night, evolutions of which we were witnesses."

Jimmy Guieu on his side indicated in his 1954 book that he too had heard this witness, who stated:

"I was driving back from Arles, by car, Tuesday evening, in the company of my wife, one of my collaborators and a fourth person when, at about 10:45 P.M., whereas driving travelling towards Salon we came to go further than Saint-Martin-of-Crau, we suddenly saw, in the sky, on our left, a large reddish ball, like a glowing hearth."

"This lasted two or three seconds and the ball disappeared, giving us the impression to have slipped by at a vertiginous speed in a direction perpendicular to ours. Strange fact, after it so vanished, the object left in the sky a sort of luminous ray similar to a car's headlight of which floated there during a few seconds and also disappeared."

Reports:

[Ref. lpl1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PROVENCAL":

[Ref. jgu1:] JIMMY GUIEU:

French Science-Fiction writer and ufologist Jimmy Guieu indicates that on January 5, 1954, at 10:45 P.M., a sighting occurred to a trustworthy industrialist of Marseilles, who gave Jimmy Guieu the following statement:

"I was going back from Arles, by car, Tuesday evening, in the company of my wife, one of my collaborators and a fourth person when, at about 10:45 P.M., whereas driving travelling towards Salon we came to go further than Saint-Martin-of-Crau, we suddenly saw, in the sky, on our left, a large reddish ball, like a glowing hearth."

"This lasted two or three seconds and the ball disappeared, giving us the impression to have slipped by at a vertiginous speed in a direction perpendicular to ours. Strange fact, after it so vanished, the object left in the sky a sort of luminous ray similar to a car's headlight of which floated there during a few seconds and also disappeared."

[Ref. hdt1:] HENRI DURRANT:

The author indicates that in 1954, on January 5, in France in the area of Marseilles, a Marseilles industrialist returned from Arles by car towards 22:45 in company of his wife, of one of his collaborators and a fourth person. When they had just exceeded St-Martin de Crau and drove towards Salon, they suddenly saw in the sky, on the left of the road, a large red ball, ike an incandescent hearth. It lasted two or three seconds and the ball disappeared, giving the impression to them that it slipped by at a vertiginous speed in a direction perpendicular to theirs. "Strange fact after having disappeared like that, the object left in the sky a kind of luminous beam similar to a car's headlight which floated during a few seconds and disappeared too."

The author indicates that the source is Jimmy Guieu pp 140-141.

[Ref. cpr1:] CLAUDE POHER, UFO RESEARCH GROUP "GEPA":

In 1968-1969, before the official GEPAN ufology effort started, its future head Dr Claude Poher was a member of the unofficial GEPA ufology group, and gathered a computer coded listing of more than 700 UFO reports on which multiple factors statistical computation could be run. In the file were a number of 1954 French UFO reports, among those this one.

For readability, a decoded interpretation of the data is provided here under the original 80 character encoded string. Decoding was done according to the original indications, the code number and its generic meaning is given. Please not that the generic meaning of each code is a predefined category, not the real specific details of the case. For example, if the main witness' age was 33, the coding would result in a number "3" which corresponds to a category "Adult from 21 to 59 years."

[Ref. gep1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "GEPO":

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

The source "27" is indicated to be "Guieu, Jimmy. 'Flying Saucers Come From Another World'. London: Hutchinson, 1956. pp.l40-l."

[Ref. goe1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

The Belgian ufologist indicates that in 1954, on January 5, in France in the area of Marseilles, a Marseilles industrialist returned from Arles by car towards 22:45 in company of his wife, of one of his collaborators and a fourth person. When they had just exceeded St-Martin de Crau and drove towards Salon, they suddenly saw in the sky, on the left of the road, a large red ball, ike an incandescent hearth. It lasted two or three seconds and the ball disappeared, giving the impression to them that it slipped by at a vertiginous speed in a direction perpendicular to theirs. "Strange fact after having disappeared like that, the object left in the sky a kind of luminous beam similar to a car's headlight which floated during a few seconds and disappeared too."

The source is indicated as "Henry DURRANT: 'Le dossier des OVNI' - Laffont 1973 - p. 145-146".

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:

Luc Chastan indicates that in the Bouches du Rhône in St Martin de Crau on January 5, 1954, at 10:45 p.m., "Four witnesses circulating in the same vehicle coming from Arles observed little after having left the town of St Martin de Crau, a large round ball of red color on the left of the road. The observation lasted two to three seconds and the ball disappeared, giving the impression to have slipped by at a vertiginous pace in a direction perpendicular to that followed by the vehicle. There remained only a kind of luminous ray similar to a car's headlight which floated a few seconds before disappearing in its turn."

The source is indicated as "Les soucoupes volantes viennent d'un autre monde by Guieu Jimmy ** Fleuve Noir 1954".

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 7 January 1954 at 22:45 in "St Martin.Crau, France", "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object, about 300 feet across, was observed by four witnesses for over one minute."

The source is indicated as "Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073)".

[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

Explanations:

Obvious description of a meteor.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

Saint-Martin de Crau, Bouches-du-Rhône, ball, red, multiple, night, road, anonymous, trail, fast, duration

Sources:

[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.

• [lpl1] Article in the regional newspaper Le Provençal, Marseille, France, pages 1 and 9, January 9, 1954.
• [jgu1] "Les Soucoupes Volantes Viennent d'un Autre Monde", book by "Jimmy Guieu", Fleuve Noir publisher, France, page 159, 1954.
• [jgu1] "Flying Saucers Come From Another World", book by Jimmy Guieu, Hutchinson publisher, U-K., page 141, 1956.
• [hdt1] "Les Dossiers des O.V.N.I.", book by "Henri Durrant", Robert Laffont publisher, France, pp 145-146, 1973.
• [cpr1] "Statistics from 735 UFO Observations", paper by Dr. Claude Poher, GEPA, France, undated.
• [gep1] "Catalogue mondial des observations - Fichier OVNI GEPO Pasqualini 1954, list, in the ufology bulletin GEPO Informations, ufology group GEPO, France, #16, page 13, April / May/ June 1979.
• [lgs1] "UFOs: A History - 1954 - January-May", monograph by Loren Gross, USA, page 8, 1990.
• [goe1] "Chronologie OVNI", web pages by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 2002, were at users.skynet.be/sky84985/asept54.htm
• [lcn1] Base OVNI France, website by Luc Chastan, France, circa 2006, at baseovnifrance.free.fr/listgen.php?typlist=1&page=0&numobs=675
• [uda1] "7 Jan 1954 - St Martin.Crau, France", web page by the UFOdna website, circa 2008, at www.ufodna.com/uf01/uf9/019424.htm
• [ubk1] Online database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, found in 2016, at ufodatenbank.de

Document history:

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This page was last updated on April 13, 2022.