The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 16-Oct-54-Obersaasheim.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
An article in the regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin, page 7 of the bilingual issue, for October 19, 1954, wondered: "Was it a flying saucer?"
It told about this sighting of October 16, 1954:
"Obersaasheim. -- Saturday around 07:30 p.m., two girls aged 13 and 14, E. L. and S. A. saw suddenly, passing the town hall, a bright ball of light green color."
"It was about the size of a child's balloon. From the south, it was heading at high speed towards the east."
"After about a minute, the ball, which was a tail of the same color had disappeared."
[Ref. dnh1:] "DERNIERES NOUVELLES DU HAUT-RHIN" NEWSPAPER:
Obersaasheim. -- Saturday around 07:30 p.m., two girls aged 13 and 14, E. L. and S. A. saw suddenly, passing the town hall, a bright ball of light green color.
It was about the size of a child's balloon. From the south, it was heading at high speed towards the east.
After about a minute, the ball, which was a tail of the same color had disappeared.
[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
In 2004, Christian Valentin wrote a dossier published in the magazine "Les Saisons d'Alsace", which was devoted to the french flap of 1954 as it was lived in Alsace.
Among briefly mentioned cases for this date, he indicates that on October 16, 1954, at 07:30 P.M., in Obersaasheim, two young girls have seen a green ball followed by a green tail, coming from the south and going towards the east.
[Ref. wsr1:] "SITE OF WILLI SKATER":
This website by an Obersaasheim resident obviously copied my file, without citing it as source, silenced my comment that it was a "probable meteor", and added a picture quite out of place:
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In 2004, Christian Valentin wrote a dossier published in the magazine "Les Saisons d'Alsace", which was devoted to the French flap of 1954 as it was lived in Alsace. Among briefly mentioned cases for this date, he indicates that on October 16, 1954, at 07:30 P.M., in Obersaasheim, two young girls have seen a green ball followed by a green tail, coming from the south and going towards the east.
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that in the bilingual issue of Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for Tuesday, October 19, 1954, on page 7, this article appeared:
Obersaasheim: Saturday around 07:30 p.m., two girls aged 13 and 14, E. L. and S. A. saw suddenly, passing the town hall, a bright ball of light green color.
It was about the size of a child's balloon. From the south, it was heading at high speed towards the east.
After about a minute, the ball, which was a tail of the same color had disappeared.
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It was green, the shape of a ball, with a tail, it was at 07:30 p.m. that day. So everything points to the meteor that was widely seen in Alsace and elsewhere. The directions matches, roughly only, but the witnesses are two young girls and cannot have been expected to use a compass. Another explanation is that from the front of the town hall, looking toward the South, there is little view of the West, and the girls had to see the meteor, if it was at a low elevation, only when it arrived in their South, as shown in the photo below, taken in 2012:
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(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Obersaasheim, Haut-Rhin, green, ball, tail, children, duration, trail, girls, night
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 19, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 28, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | May 1, 2014 | Additions [dnh1], [wsr1], [cvn2], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet. Probable meteor" previously. |
