The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 29-Sep-54-Wassy.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In the late 1950s, a French archivist, Guy Quincy, compiled a catalog of sightings of unidentified flying objects. He noted there, without further details or source, that on September 29, 1954, at an unknown time, a luminous object was observed in Wassy.
I found that the regional newspaper L'Union of Reims of October 3, 1954 had indeed reported, among other observations, that of a "very luminous yellow-red elongated disc" at Wassy on September 29, 1954:
A few minutes before 8 p.m., Mrs. Pernée, who lives on Avenue de la Gare, was leaving friends, Mrs. and Mr. Py, a chief warrant officer of the gendarmerie living on Rue de l'Abbé-Oudot, from whom she had just borrowed books and magazines to read during the evening.
Miss Renée Py having accompanied her into the street, the two were about to part when Mrs. Pernée saw appear above the street an elongated yellow-red disc crossing the sky very quickly and at low altitude. "The craft, if craft there was," was moving from west to east.
Miss Py, who had been standing a little back and had not seen the disc arrive, clearly saw it cross the street and disappear. The brightness was such, the two witnesses told the newspaper, that the rooftops were illuminated by it. No sound was heard.
```[Ref. unn1:] NEWSPAPER "L'UNION":
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Every morning, when the reader opens his newspaper, he is drawn by headlines more sensational than the last, recounting the appearances of "saucers or other flying cigars."
Everyone seems eager to be the one who has seen one of these mysterious craft and who can provide the most details.
While it sometimes happens that certain people are not taken seriously, there are nevertheless those who do not venture into revelations of such importance without having carefully weighed the terms of their statements.
And the account published by "L'Union" of the interview with Mr. Laurent, mayor of Saint-Dizier, is proof of this.
Wassy was still missing its mysterious craft.
Since Wednesday evening, that is no longer the case - we now have our saucer.
On Wednesday evening, a few minutes before 8 p.m., Mrs. Pernée, who lives on Avenue de la Fare, was leaving friends, Mr. and Mrs. Py, the latter being a chief warrant officer in the gendarmerie who lives on Rue de l'Abbé-Oudot. She had gone to fetch books and magazines to read during the evening.
Miss Renée Py had accompanied her into the street. The two were about to part when Mrs. Pernée saw an elongated disc of yellow-red color appear above the street, crossing the sky very rapidly and at low altitude. The craft, if craft it was, was moving from west to east.
Miss Py, who was slightly behind and had not seen the disc arrive, clearly saw it cross the street and disappear. The luminosity was such, these two people told us, that the rooftops were illuminated by it. And no sound could be heard.
Thus the statements of the witnesses of the passage of the luminous object in Saint-Dizier are confirmed.
And it cannot be said that Mrs. Pernée and Miss Py waited until they had read the newspaper before declaring what they had seen, because their families and neighbors were informed immediately. Only the fear of publicity had prevented them from speaking about it further.
***
Let us add, in conclusion, that Mr. Georges Beurton, a road worker living in Pont-Varin, himself saw about three weeks ago a luminous disc of greenish color crossing the sky around 7:45 p.m. The next day, the newspapers reported that a disc of the same color had been seen near Angers. Mr. Beurton informed his co-workers the very next morning, but, also fearing the mockery of his fellow citizens, he did not speak about it further.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
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September 29 [, 1954]
[... Other cases...]
?: Wassy/Saint-Dizier (Hte.Marne): lum. obj.
[... Other cases...]
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Totally insufficient information.
Of course it was probably the meteor seen that day about 08:00 p.m. in that area.
Update on March 14, 2026:
With my new source [unn1], the information is now sufficient to be more definitive: it was very likely the meteor seen that day around 8:00 p.m. in this area.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Wassy, Haute-Marne, object, luminous, Pernée, rue de l'Abbé-Oudot, Renée Py, disc, elongated, yellow-red, orange, fast, low, luminous, silent
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 20, 2021 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | March 14, 2026 | Addition [unn1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [unn1]. In the Explanations, addition of the "Update on March 14, 2026" part. |
