The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 8-Jan-54-Montaleix.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
A dispatch from Agence France Presse (A.F.P.) dated January 8, 1954, and reported in the Press, mentioned a "mysterious phenomenon" in the sky over the Sancy Massif early on the morning of January 8, 1954: the residents of the small hamlet of Montaleix, in the commune of Chambon-sur-Lac, on the foothills of the Sancy Massif, were awakened by the sound of an airplane engine.
The noise continued for two hours, from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., and then a large greenish glow was seen in the sky, and after that the noise ceased.
The A.F.P. added that the station in Aix-en-Provence, with which the local authorities had established contact, had reported no aircraft in distress.
[Ref. brn1:] NEWSPAPER "LE BERRY REPUBLICAIN":
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Le Mont-Dore, January 8. -- Early this morning, the residents of the small hamlet of Monthaleix, in the commune of Chambon-sur-Lac, on the foothills of the Sancy Massif, were awakened by the sound of an airplane engine.
The noise continued for two hours, from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. A large greenish glow was then seen in the sky, and the noise stopped.
The station in Aix-en-Provence, with which local authorities had made contact, reported no aircraft in distress.
[Ref. lpl1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PROVENCAL":
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Continued from the front page
It lasted a few seconds, and the ball disappeared, giving the impression of having sped away at a dizzying speed in a direction perpendicular to ours, having crossed our path.
All that remained of the object's passage was a sort of luminous trail, comparable to the light of a car headlight, which lingered in the sky for a moment before dissolving."
Could the four travelers have suffered a collective hallucination? On the contrary, the account given to us stands out for its attention to detail and objectivity.
"Once we arrived in Marseille," concluded our visitor, "we initially thought about reporting the strange sight we had just witnessed, but we were afraid we wouldn't be believed. However, the report in 'Le Provençal' coincided so closely with our own observations that our doubts disappeared. The 'flying saucer' seen Monday night in Marignane may very well have repeated its mysterious maneuvers the following night — maneuvers of which we were the witnesses."
We submit this new piece of information to the case, which remains open.
Le Mont-Dore (A.F.P.)
The residents of the small hamlet of Monthaleix, commune of Chambon-sur-Lac, on the foothills of the Sancy Massif, were awakened yesterday morning at dawn by the sound of an airplane engine.
This noise continued for two hours, from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Then, a large greenish glow was seen in the sky and the noise stopped. The station in Aix-en-Provence, with which the local authorities had established contact, reported no aircraft in distress.
[Ref. cia1:] CIA:
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CLASSIFICATION [Blackened out]
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROACASTS
| REPORT NO. | 00-W-29903 | |||
| CO NO.: | .. | |||
| COUNTRY: | Denmark, Dahomey (French West Africa), France, Sweden, West Germany, Pakistan, Union of South Africa | DATE OF INFORMATION: | 1953-1954 | |
| SUBJET: | Military; Scientific - Unidentified flying objects | |||
| HOW PUBLISHED: | Daily newspaper | DATE DIST.: | 20 Apr 1954 | |
| WHERE PUBLISHED: | As indicated | NO. OF PAGES: | 4 | |
| DATE PUBLISHED: | 2 Nov 1953 - 27 Jan 1954 | |||
| LANGUAGES: | French, German, Afrikaans, Swedish | SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT NO.: | ||
| [Blackened out] | [Blackened out] | THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION | ||
| SOURCE: | As indicated |
SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
[... (Reports from other countries and France) ...]
UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON IN PUY-DE-DOME SKY -- Nice, Nice-Matin, 10 Jan 54
On the morning of 8 january, the residents of the small hamlet of Monthaleix, in the commune of Chambon-sur-Lac Department of Puy-de-Dome, were awakened by the sound of an airplane motor. The noise lasted from 0530 to 0730 hours. A large greenish flash was seen and the noise stopped. The Aix-en-Provence ground station had received no distress calls from aircraft.
[... (Next reports)]
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It is not very clear, to me at least, that the greenish glow after two hours of "airplane noise" should qualify as a "UFO phenomenon."
However, some ufologists, like the Frenchman Joël Mesnard in the 1970s and 1980s, made of such events into a distinct ufological category, which Mesnard called "crashes of nothing" - a plane is seen or heard, seeming to crash, but no debris is ever found, and there is no record of any corresponding plane flight. Mesnard indeed considered this to fall within the scope of ufology.
This case here fits quite well with that somewhat peculiar type of case; though I do not really know what to make of it.
The data is indeed very scant, and I can't help but think it might be a coincidence. For example, a plane is flying there - perhaps a military aircraft in a flight not registered by civilian aviation authorities. Then a meteor explodes.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Montaleix, Puy-de-Dôme, plane, noise, green, glow, crash of nothing
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 15, 2025 | First published, [brn1], [lpl1]. |
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 28, 2004 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 7, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | January 31, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet.". |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | May 14, 2025 | Additions [brn1], [lpl1]. |
