The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 14-Oct-54-Saint-Priest.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
Aimé Michel noted in his 1958 book on the French wave of 1954, that in Saint-Priest "in the Dauphiné, Mr. Jean Mortin of Lyon" had observed two objects in the sky beyond the Bron airport. They were incandescent green and went north at high speed.
In 1979, the "skeptical" ufologists Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker evoked this case, in the Isère department, giving as only information that it was a "succinct" case, not investigated; which had taken place at 6 p.m.; a Web database would indicate "06:20 p.m.".
Nobody specified any contemporary source.
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
French ufologist Aimé Michel notes that on October 14 in Saint-Priest in the region of the Dauphiné, M. Jean Mortin, resident of Lyon, observed two objects in the sky beyond the airport of Bron. They were glowing green and went up north at fast speed.
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors note this case of October 14, 1954:
"Saint-Priest - 38 - 6 p.m.: no investigation. Enters in the series of the very succinct cases."
[Ref. goe1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:
Godelieve van Overmeire indicates that in 1954, on October 14, in France, in Saint Priest (the Dauphiné), "Jean Mortin of Lyon observes in the sky beyond the Bron airfield, two objects of an incandescent green going at sharp pace to the north."
The source is noted "Aimé Michel: 'M.O.C.' Seghers pub., p. 231".
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates in his database that in the Rhone in St Priest on October 14, 1954 at an unknown hour, "a witness observed two objects in the sky beyond the airport of Bron. They are incandescent green and go towards the North at high speed."
The source ist noted "M.O.C. by Michel Aimé ** Arthaud 1958".
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
This database recorded this case 3 times:
| 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. Priest | France | 18.20 | NL | |||||
| 19541014 | 14.10.1954 | St. Priest | France | NL |
|
Barthel and Brucker located Saint-Priest in the department "38", thus in the Isère. There is no commune of this name currently in the Isère, but we have "Saint-Priest, metropolis of Lyon." This Saint-Priest was indeed in the Isère in 1954, and is now included in the new entity "Métropole de Lyon".
Aimé Michel spoke of the "Dauphiné". This is not a department, but a historical and cultural entity including the departments of Isère, Drôme, Hautes-Alpes and part of the Rhône or Lyon metropolis. This suggests that Michel did not know the department, so he did not know the precise location of the case; which is a problem annoying because he spoke of "aligned" cases for that date; thus without taking into consideration all the cases he knew.
We are told that the witness was from Lyon, the phenomenon beyond Bron, the Lyon airport, so this Saint-Priest of the Lyon metropolis and formerly in the Isere should be the correct one. I noted as department "Rhône"; Saint-Priest is not, administratively speaking, in the department of the Rhône; but like Lyon, it is there geographically.
That day around 06:13 p.m., a big meteor had been widely seen passing by the Rhône Valley.
Here, everything corresponds to this meteor... except that there seems to be two meteors. There may have been a fragmentation of the meteor.
Let's note, nevertheless, this other case, in Pierrelatte in the Drôme, same day, same hour approximately, about 150 km more in the South than this case, the only one with this one to mention two objects, but where one of the objects does not seem to be a fragment of the meteor.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Saint-Priest, Rhône-Alpes, Jean Mortin, airport, two, object, fast, green, glowing
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | August 27, 2004 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 8, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [goe1], [lcn1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 25, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | July 16, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet. Meteors." |
