The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 14-Jul-54-Pionsat.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In his 1997 book "Le Problème de la Vie Extraterrestre", Michel Jeantheau reported that on July 14, 1954, Mr. Du Tertre, living in St-Vitte-sur-Eriance in the Haute-Vienne, came from Pionsat, 3 kilometers before Montaigut, around 06:30 a.m., when he saw his windshield crumble in two seconds, after watching a blue spark.
He stopped at the gendarmerie who took note of the incident.
Michel Jeantheau indicated that this came from the newspaper Le Centre Républicain, of Montluçon, on page 3, for July 17, 1954.
[Ref. mju1:] MICHEL JEANTHEAU:
This ufologist indicates that the appearance of a "flame" during a windshield explosion is not a unique experience as similar testimonies are existing. He quotes as an example, another from the daily Le Centre Républicain, of Montluçon in the Allier, for Saturday, July 17, 1954, page 3:
THE WINDSHIELDS CANCER AGAIN
On the 14th of July, Mr. Du Tertre, residing in St-Vitte-sur-Eriance (Haute-Vienne), coming from Pionsat, 3 kilometers before Montaigut, around 6:30 p.m., saw his windshield crumble in two seconds, after watching a blue spark. He stopped at the gendarmerie which took note of this incident which continues to make headlines.
He comments that the spark, luminous phenomenon, preceded the disintegration of the windshield, since it is well written in the text that the latter had occurred after the observation of the blue spark. He then considers that this would be an electromagnetic field.
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The windshields "explosions" in 1954, called "window cancer" or "parebrisite" in French, has become an often cited example of "collective illusion" or "mass hysteria". Sociologists and psychologists refer to these incidents in France and in the United States to ensure that "crowds" can easily fall into unfounded collective myths.
And of course, some "skeptical" ufologists explain that the "window cancer" that preceded the wave of "flying saucers" of 1954 proves that the saucers too were only illusions.
None put forward the following point: "collective hysteria" here would in any case concern only the interpretation of the facts, not the facts themselves. And the interpretations were not really "hysterical", they were attempts at rationalization quite understandable and sensible in the context of the time.
All sorts of explanations were advanced at the time for the "window cancer", such as an effect of atomic experiments, Martian activity, or "vandals". In the United States, the police found that the epidemic affected mainly old cars, and it was thought that the windows would explode as a result of their wear.
In the windshield explosions reported in France in 1954, I find "constants": the mention of a light or a flash, blue when the color is mentioned, the lack of sense of the explanations by vandals, Martians, atomic tests, the insistence of the witness(es) that no pebble struck the windshield, the hearing of an explosion sound, the opacity of the window after the explosion.
Some of these characteristics have really no strangeness: an explosion noise is perfectly normal when a windshield breaks. The window becomes opaque because the anti-burst protection layer produced this. The lack of notice of a shock by a pebble or something else can also be explained: the windshield may have been hit and weakened by a hit long before, and then explodes only later when nothing hits it.
I have less idea about the flash or the light. Is it an illusion caused by the sudden opacity of the glass?
Jimmy Guieu linked this mystery to the extraterrestrials, but few ufologists followed him on this path. The Press did it sometimes, but without claiming this "explanation" was serious.
For this case, which is not the only one of its kind, as Michel Jeantheau points out, there is first the light, yes, the explosion of the windshield. The light is blue, as in other cases.
But I am not quite sure that extraterrestrials have something to do with this.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Pionsat, Puy-de-Dôme, Du Tertre, Saint-Vitte-sur-Eriance, Pionsat, Montaigut, evening, windshield, explosion, spark, blue, gendarmes
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | August 26, 2019 | First published, [mju1]. |
