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October 14, 1954, Valence, Drôme:

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

Summary:

The regional newspaper Le Provençal for October 17, 1954, reported an observation of October 14, 1954, near Valence, in the Drôme department:

A little after 06:00 p.m., Mr. Jean Gabert, agent of the main tax office of Valence, was returning by car from Saint-Perey with his young wife, when before Granges-les-Valence, they saw at a low height a ball of fire which followed the valley of the Rhone. They both had the impression that the "craft" was flying over Valence.

It was a green ball with a tail that ended in yellow, which they well saw for a few seconds, and which suddenly disappeared.

In 1979, "skeptical" ufologists Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker ensure that "the" witness was "untraceable after investigation", that it was a luminous sphere, plus a trail.

They did not specify the obvious explanation; which soon after, Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon pointed out: it was one of the observations of the meteor of 06:15 p.m. in that region. This will not prevent the case from appearing with Figuet and Ruchon as source, but without their correct explanation, on the Web.

Reports:

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

Scan.

Flying saucer courier (Continued)

Near la Tour-d'Aigues
The Vaucluse

"Daddy, the sun is falling upon us!"

Looking up, I saw in the sky a disc from 6 to 7 meters provided with a kind of tail of several meters. Having gone in all haste at the place where it had seemed to me that the strange machine had landed, I did not find anything."

And M. Reynier adds: "I acknowledge that I was a little afraid; as for my son, he was sick with it."

This testimony was confirmed by several people who saw the object from different places.

A BALL OF FIRE
IN THE SKY OF THE DROME

Valence (C.P.)

Thursday night a little after 6 p.m., Mr. Jean Gabert, agent of the principal receipt of Valence, returned by car with his young woman, from Saint-Perey when before Grange-les-Valence, they saw at a low height a ball of fire which followed the valley of the Rhone. They both had the impression that the machine flew over Valence. It was a ball of green color with a tail that ended in yellow color. Mr. and Mrs. Gabert saw it well during a few seconds. Then suddenly the unknown object disappeared.

IN THE GARD

Tresques (C.P.)

Thursday, at 05:30 p.m., Mr. Payan Yves, who was plowing his field, Saint Martin district, had the surprise to see passing above him at low altitude a machine of an intense luminosity, leaving a dazzling trail and not making any noise. The object moved at a vertiginous speed from West to East. He alerted Mr. Teissier Raoul who was hunting and both followed its flight until complete disappearance in direction of the east.

A CIGAR
IN CARPENTRAS
DROPPED SPARLES

Carpentras (C.P.)

Thursday evening, around 6 p.m., several people saw from the district of Peyguière, a machine which crossed the sky west of Carpentras. It had the shape of a cigar, shone, and appeared to drop sparks behind.

A LUMINOUS CRAFT
SEEN IN THE SKY
OF FUVEAU

by a schoolteacher and his pupils

Fuveau (C.P.)

Thursday, October 14, at 6:10 p.m., on the ground of basket-ball of "Trente-Gouttes", Mr. Martin, schoolteacher in Fuveau, initiated his pupils and alumni to basket-ball when, in the middle of the meeting, he saw in the sky a luminous machine of lengthened form, whose color reminded that of the glow-worms. The appearance lasted 3 to 4 seconds. According to the distance, the observer thinks that the machine was moving at high speed to fly over Peynier while moving towards Rousset; besides he described a trajectory which disappeared behind the village's bell-tower. This kind of rocket left behind a short luminous sparkling trail.

The pupils who surrounded their teacher also saw for a short moment this "phenomenon".

THE INTERPLANETARY "DIVER"
IS AFRAID
OF THE DOGS

Perpignan (A.F.P.).

M. Damien Siguères 56 years old, retired customs officer, stated to have seen on the road, close to his home, in the suburbs of Perpignan, a large red sphere. A tall man came out of it, dressed like a diver. Having made a tour of his apparatus, the "diver" went back inside hurriedly while Mr. Siguères' two dogs were rushing towards him.

The machine then rose without noise and disappeared at an extraordinary speed.

Mr. Siguères was then at about thirty meters of the machine, of which no trace was found on the ground.

[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:

The two authors note this case of October 14, 1954:

"Valence - 26 - About 6 p.m.: witness untraceable after investigation. Luminous sphere, plus trail."

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

The two authors indicate that on October 14, 1954 at 06:00 P.M., in Valence in the department of Drôme, a ball of green color with a tail ending with a yellow color was seen flying over the valley of the Rhone.

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 17, 1954.

[Ref. uin1:] "U.F.O. INFORMATIONS" UFOLOGY BULLETIN:

DATE: 10/14/2019

PLACE: Valence

WITNESSES: Mr. Jean Gabert, agent at the main tax office of Valence, his wife.

HOUR: sortly after 6 p.m.

OBSERVATION: "Thursday evening a little after 6 p.m., Jean Gabert, (...), came back with his young wife, from Saint-Peray when before Granges-les-Valence, they saw at low height a fireball that followed the Rhone Valley. They both felt that the machine was flying over Valence. It was a green ball with a tail that ended in yellow. Mr. and Mrs. Gabert saw it for a few seconds, then suddenly the unknown object disappeared."

SOURCE: Le Provençal for 10/17/1954

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:

Luc Chastan indicates in his database that in the Drôme in Valence on October 14, 1954 at 18:00 hours, a "Ball of green color with a tail finishing in yellow flies over the valley of the Rhone."

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

Explanations:

The 06:15 p.m. meteor of that day.

Map.

Keywords:

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

Valence, Drôme, ball, green, yellow, trail, Jean Gabert, multiple, car, Grange-les-Valence, fire

Sources:

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

Document history:

Version: Created/Changed by: Date: Change Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross April 13, 2004 First published.
1.0 Patrick Gross April 8, 2009 Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1].
1.1 Patrick Gross October 17, 2016 Addition [lpl1].
1.2 Patrick Gross April 29, 2019 Additions [uin1], Summary.

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This page was last updated on April 29, 2019.