The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 16-Oct-54-Brioude.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Quotidien de la Haute-Loire for October 17, 1954, reported among observations of October 16, 1954, in the evening, of what would prove to be an Italian stratospheric balloon, that this "luminous craft" was also seen by the residents of Brioude in the Haute-Loire department.
[Ref. lqh1:] NEWSPAPER "LE QUOTIDIEN DE LA HAUTE-LOIRE":
The weather station Albert Baldit in Chadrac (Haute-Loire) could observe yesterday evening from 05:50 p.m. to 06:35 p.m., with glasses, a luminous machine that appeared to have the shape of an olive supporting a black antenna at its top. Moreover, observers noted that the object that threw very shining reflections of aluminium had a black trace at its third and two thirds. The station believed to have identified at the beginning of its observations the planet Jupiter, the largest of our solar system. But this machine which compared to north was 100° west changed color, with the setting sun, to become red and disappear in two minutes. Several people made the same observations from the place of Breuil while looking towards the Durande. It does indeed seem that is was the same mysterious apparatus which was observed at the same hour by the observatory of Rueyres (Cantal), by an employee of the EDF in Brives-la-Gaillarde and by the inhabitants of Brioude (Haute-Loire).
At 03:30 P.M., a lady of which we will conceal the name but of which we warrant that she is serious, informed her husband that she noted the same phenomenon in the sky above the virgin. The observant was at this moment near la place du Greffe.
[Ref. rbt1:] RENAUD BENOIST:
The author indicates that on October 16, 1954, the weather station of Chadrac in the Haute-Loire observed between 05:30 p.m. and 06:35 p.m. with the telescope a strange luminous craft having "the shape of a straight olive supporting at the top a black antenna". The professionals were able to observe it for a long time and found that it seemed to be in flaming aluminum, with at its two-thirds a black trace. "The station initially believed it was the planet Jupiter, but the object who was at 100° west suddenly changed color strangely to become intense red then disappeared completely. Many witnesses had observed it in several villages of the region, towards the Durande.
The observatory of Rueyres in the Cantal, the employees of the EDF of Brive-la-Gaillarde in the Corrèze and the inhabitants of Brioudes in the Haute-Loire also testified to this strange phenomenon.
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Probable high-altitude balloon of the Padua University. See also the note about it by Raymond Veillith in 1968.
The photograph of the balloon by the Observatory of Haute-Provence:
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(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Brioude, Haute-Loire, multiple
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | January 30, 2006 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 26, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | January 27, 2017 | Addition [rbt1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | November 27, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. |
