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October 14, 1954, Saint-Auban, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence:

Reference for this case: 14-Oct-54-Saint-Auban.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

In the context of the evocation of an observation of October 14, 1954, the regional newspaper Le Provençal for October 15, 1954, indicated that on the other hand, the hundreds of people working at the Pechiney factory of Saint-Auban had seen at approximately 6 p.m. "a shining sphere moving at a very high pace, it appeared flanked by two big pipes on the side."

In 1979, ufologists Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon have the explanation: all the observations of 6 p.m. that day were obviously about an object at very high altitude, seen simultaneously from very distant places; which was presumably a big meteor according to the descriptions.

The summary of the case appeared on the French Web, but without the explanation, even though Figuet and Ruchon are cited as sources.

Reports:

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

Scan.

An red and yellow AERIAL OVOID observed on Arles

Arles (C.P.).

Arles also had its "unidentified object" - not to call it flying saucer.

A group of residents of Arles living in the end of the Sadi-Carnot avenue, near the channel of Arles to Bouc, witnessed, indeed, Wednesday evening, around 7 p.m., the maneuvers of an object in the sky.

According to the statements which were made to us, in particular by Mrs. Paul Forbaud and her son Adrien, a kind of luminous ball was rather high in the sky in direction of Sainte-Maries-de-la-Mer. This ball started to whirl before going down slowly on the horizon.

This descent lasted several minutes since the observers had time to go get a binocular in order to better observe the phenomenon.

The binoculars made it possible to see an object of ovoid form then, the higher part appearing of dark red color, whereas the lower part was paler, vaguely yellowish.

Mrs. Forbaud specified to us that she had already observed, three weeks ago, a kind of disc placed vertically and emitting yellow, green and red gleams.

THE MAYOR OF BASTIDONNE (VAUCLUSE) SAW "ONE"

Pertuis (C.P.).

A luminous disc, of lengthened form, a thickness of 1 meter approximately, was clearly seen in the area of Pertuid yesterday afternoon, and particularly in La Bastidonne.

Mr. Francis Jausserand, mayor of this village, came in person to describe the phenomenon to us:

"It was 6 p.m. when I returned from harvesting grapee. A very shining disc moving horizontally between the hills of Myrargues and Luberon, leaving a sharp reddish trail, stopped almost above the village of La Bastidonne and stayed motionless during about twenty seconds, then, without any noise nor trace, disappeared at a vertiginous speed, vertically."

This testimony of the mayor of Bastidonne was confirmed to us by other people who observed the luminous object from different places, the details and the schedule perfectly coinciding.

LUMINOUS SPHERE IN THE SKY OF THE LOW ALPS

Volonne (C.P.).

Yesterday at the end of the afternoon, residents of Volonne occupied gathering the grapes, saw a large reddish ball whirling on itself at a very fast pace.

In addition, hundreds of people working at the Pechiney factory of Saint-Auban, saw around 18 hours a brilliant sphere moving at a very high pace; it appeared flanked of two large pipes on the side.

FLYING CIGAR IN THE MALLEMORT SKY

Mallemort (C.P.).

Yesterday evening around 18 hours, three people worthy of faith saw a flying cigar. It was motionless above the mounts of Luberon, in direction of Mérindol.

It resembled a long spindle of color aluminium. It was motionless in the sky.

A few minutes afterwards, it disappeared at very high speed, leaving a luminous trail behind him.

These three people: Green Marcel, Armenico Paul and Espagnet Francois, are serious people and this confirms the statements of several others, which would have seen flying saucers since a few days in the sky of Mallemort.

"A ball, from which came out a red and green flame" in the sky of Avignon

Avignon (C.P.).

Yesterday, around 06:10 p.m., a plasterer-painter from Avignon, working for the services of the historic buildings, Mr. Blanc, returned from his work on a scooter. He had one of his comrades on his vehicle.

Arriving in street J.-H. Fabre, he saw moving towards the North-East an object difficult to identify pass above his head.

A few moments later, he told us: "I saw a ball passing at low altitude, silently, at a speed which seemed, as much as I could appreciate for lack of reference mark for the distances, about four times that of a jet. The ball released a kind of flame, spindle-shaped, of green and red color, long about twice its diameter."

[Ref. fru1:] MICHEL FIGUET AND JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:

The two authors report that on October 14, 1954 at 06:00 p.m., in Saint-Auban, in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, hundreds of people working in the Pechiney factory observed a brilliant sphere evolving at a very fast pace and appearing to be flanked of two large pipes on the side.

The authors note that all the observations at 6 p.m. that day obviously refer to an object at very high altitude, seen simultaneously from very distant places, which is probably a large meteor according to descriptions.

The source is indicated as "Le Provençal" for October 15, 1954.

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":

4099: 1954/10/14 00:00 5 5:59:40 E 44:04:20 N 3331 WEU FRN AHP 7:C

St-AUBAN,04,FR:100s/WORKERS:BRILL.SPHERE W/2 LARGE TUBES ON THE SIDE:NFD

Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 166 : TOWN &CITY

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:

Luc Chastan indicates in his database that in the Alpes de Haute-Provence in St Auban on October 14, 1954 at 18:00 hours, "hundreds of people working with the Pechiney factory observe a brilliant sphere moving at a very sharp pace and appearing flanked of two large pipes on the side."

The source is noted: "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... by Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979".

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 14 October 1954 at 17:45 in "St Auban Alpes, France", "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object was observed by several witnesses."

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

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

Case Nr. New case Nr. Investigator Date of observation Zip Place of observation Country of observation Hour of observation Classification Comments Identification
19541014 14.10.1954 St. Auban Alpes France 17.45 NL

Explanations:

Map.

The 6:15 p.m. meteor that day.

Keywords:

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

Saint-Auban, Alpes-Maritimes, multiple, sphere, fast, trail, brilliant, pipes, Pechiney

Sources:

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

Document history:

Version: Created/Changed by: Date: Change Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross May 1, 2005 First published.
1.0 Patrick Gross April 8, 2009 Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1], [uda1].
1.1 Patrick Gross June 26, 2010 Addition [lpl1].
1.2 Patrick Gross February 27, 2017 Addition [ubk1].
1.3 Patrick Gross July 14, 2019 Addition of the Summary.
1.4 Patrick Gross November 7, 2019 Addition [lhh1].

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