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The 1954 French flap:

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August 11, 1954, Sérézin-de-la-Tour, Isère:

Reference for this case: 11-Aug-54-Serezin-de-la-Tour.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

In 1966, ufologist Jacques Vallée stated without any detail that on August 11, 1954, there was an observation in "Serezin".

Reports:

[Ref. jve1:] JACQUES VALLEE:

Jacques Vallée indicates that on August 11, 1954, there were already four sightings in France, including one in "Serezin".

[Ref. jve2:] JACQUES VALLEE:

Vallée says that on August 11, 1954, there had been already four sightings, including one in Serezin.

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 11 August 1954 in "Serezin.Tour", France, "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object was observed by two witnesses."

The sources are indicated as "Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); Vallee, Jacques, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1966."

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

UFO researcher/author Jacques Vallee noted a marked increase in French activity as early as August 11th when reports came in from eastern France at the towns of Serezin, Remiremont, Contrexeville and Gerardmer.

195. Vallee, Jacques and Janine. Challenge to Science. New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, Inc., 1966. p.15O.

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

This database recorded the case twice:

Case Nr.	New case Nr.	Investigator	Date of observation	Zip	Place of observation	Country of observation	Hour of observation	Classification	Comments	Identification
19540811			11.08.1954		Serezin Tour	France
19540811			11.08.1954		Serezin Tour	France		NL

Explanations:

I think that:

The date given by Vallée is incorrect, it would not be August 11, but August 8, 1954, when an obvious meteor passed at 3 a.m. as by chance. August 11 is perhaps the date of publication in the press.
The place is given by Vallée as "Serezin", then, decades later, [uda1] and [ubk1] add "Tour", like "Sérézin-de-la-Tour" which is in the Isère department, and this may be without reason since Vallée only said "Serezin". It happens there is also a Sérézin-du-Rhône, in the Rhône department. So the place may be wrong too.

So, I think it was probably the meteor of August 8, 1954, at 03:00 in the morning.

Keywords:

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

Serezin-de-la-Tour, Sérézin-de-la-Tour, Isère

Sources:

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

[jve1] "Les Phénomènes Insolites de l'Espace", book by Jacques and Janine Vallée, La Table Ronde publishers, France, 1966.
[jve2] "Flying Saucers - A Challenge to Science", book by Jacques Vallée, Ace Star Books - Henry Regnery publishers, USA, page 150, 1966.
[jve1] "Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma?", book by Jacques and Janine Vallée, Henry Regnery publisher, USA, page 58, 1966.
[jve1] "Flying Saucers a Challenge To Science", book by Jacques Vallée and Janine Vallée, Ace Books publishers, USA, page 150, 1966.
[jve1] "Les Phénomènes Insolites de l'Espace", book by Jacques and Janine Vallée, Robert Laffont publisher, France, page 162, 1978.
[lgs1] "UFOs: A History - 1954 June-August", monography by Loren Gross, USA, page 85, 1990.
[uda1] "11 Aug 1954 - Serezin.Tour, France", web page by the UFOdna website, circa 2008, at www.ufodna.com/uf02/uf0/020505.htm
[ubk1] Online database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, found in 2016, at ufodatenbank.de

Document history:

Version:	Created/Changed by:	Date:	Change Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	January 2, 2008	First published.
1.0	Patrick Gross	March 20, 2010	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Addition [uda1].
1.1	Patrick Gross	November 20, 2016	Additions [lgs1], [ubk1].
1.2	Patrick Gross	February 7, 2019	Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet" plus the note about the probable date error.
1.3	Patrick Gross	June 10, 2022	Addition [jve2].

This page was last updated on June 10, 2022.