The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 14-Oct-54-Volonne.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
An article in the regional newspaper Le Provençal for October 15, 1954, stated that the day before at the end of the afternoon, the inhabitants of Volonne busy picking up grapes had seen a large red ball spinning on itself at a very fast pace.
In 1979, ufologists Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon mentionnent the sighting and gave the explanation: all the observations of 6 p.m. that day were obviously of an object at very high altitude, seen simultaneously from very distant places; which was probably a big meteor according to the descriptions.
One finds the case summarized on the Web, but without the explanation, even though Figuet and Ruchon are cited as a source.
[Ref. lpl1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PROVENCAL":
Arles (P.C.).
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.
Pertuis (P.C.).
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.
Volonne (P.C.).
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.
Mallemort (P.C.).
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.
Avignon (P.C.).
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 indicate that on October 14, 1954 at 06:00 p.m., in Volonne in the Alps of High-Provence, vintagers saw a large red ball whirling on itself very quickly.
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.
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
4098: 1954/10/14 00:00 1 6:01:00 E 44:07:00 N 3331 WEU FRN AHP 7:7
VOLONNE,04,FR:VINTNERS:BIG RED BALL TURNS+SPINS RAPIDLY:NFD
Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 166 : MOUNTAINS
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates in his database that in the Alpes de Haute Provence in Volonne on October 14, 1954 at 18:00 hours, "Vintagers see a large red ball very quickly whirling on itself."
The source is noted: "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... by Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979".
Probably the 06:13 p.m. meteor of that day.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Volonne, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, ball, red, large, rotation, vintagers
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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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]. |
1.1 | Patrick Gross | June 26, 2010 | Addition [lpl1]. |
1.2 | Patrick Gross | July 17, 2019 | Additions [lhh1], Summary. |