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The 1954 French flap:

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August 17, 1954, Montluçon, Allier:

Reference for this case: 17-Aug-54-Montluçon.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The Paris newspaper L'Aurore for August 19, 1954, reported that Mr. Claude Coche, an industrial designer living in the city of Vincennes, said that in the afternoon of August 17, 1954, he saw a "flying saucer" in the sky above Montlucon, in the department of Allier.

He described what he saw as a disc-like, bright, shining white object that was visible for several seconds before it was hidden by a cloud.

Subsequently, Aimé Michel gave a wrong date of August 18, 1954, and no detail, then ufology catalogs gave abstracts having lost the precise date which became August 1954.

Reports:

[Ref. cia1:] CIA:

CLASSIFICATION [Blackened out]

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROACASTS

		REPORT NO.	00-W-30339
		CO NO.:	..
COUNTRY:	Non-Orbit	DATE OF INFORMATION:	1954
SUBJET:	Military - Unidentified flying objects
HOW PUBLISHED:	Daily newspaper	DATE DIST.:	25 Oct 1954
WHERE PUBLISHED:	As indicated	NO. OF PAGES:	3
DATE PUBLISHED:	5 Jul - 2 Sep 1954
LANGUAGE:	Various	SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT NO.:
[Blackened out]	[Blackened out]	THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOURCE:	As indicated

SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

[... (Reports from other countries and France) ...]

SEES "FLYING SAUCER" IN CENTRAL FRANCE -- Paris, L'Aurore, 19 Aug 54

Claude Coche, an industrial designer residing in the town of Vincennes, declared that in the afternoon of 17 August 1954, he had seen a "flying saucer" in the sky over Montluçon, Allier Department. He described what he saw as a luminous, brilliant white, disk-like object. The phenomenon was visible for several seconds before it was hidden by a cloud.

[... (Next reports)]

[Ref. aml4:] AIME MICHEL:

On the 18th [of August 1954], a report from Montlucon.

[Ref. aml2:] AIME MICHEL:

On August 18 [,1954] a report of a flying saucer observation came from Montlucon.

[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":

August - no date (doc. Graziana) Montluçon, on the platform of the station.

Mr. Claude Coche, draftsman at Vincennes, sees a luminous object of brilliant whiteness moving in the sky.

[Ref. ioi1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "INFO-OVNI":

020 08/../54 ..h. Montluçon
Shining white luminous object

012 08/../1954 Montluçon - Witness Mr. Coche

The witness, then on the platform of the station, observed a lum. object of a brilliant whiteness. (Docunent Graziana)

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 17 August 1954 in Vincennes, France, "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One white disc was observed."

The source is indicated as Hall, Richard H., UFO Reports from the Files of the CIA, Fund for UFO Research, Washington".

[Ref. uda2:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 17 August 1954 at 15:00 in "Montlucon", France, "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object was observed."

The source is indicated as "Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073)".

[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

Case Nr.	New case Nr.	Investigator	Date of observation	Zip	Place of observation	Country of observation	Hour of observation	Classification	Comments	Identification
19540817			17.08.1954		Montlucon	France	15.00

Explanations:

Possible meteor, or possible plane.

Keywords:

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

Montluçon, Allier, Claude Coche, day, flying saucer, object, disc, white, luminous, duration

Sources:

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

[----] Article in the national newspaper L'Aurore, Paris, France, August 19, 1954.
[cia1] "Information from foreign documents or Radio Broadcast - Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects, 31 July - 20 September 1954", rapport par la CIA (Central Intelligence Agency, USA), pages 1,3, 25 octobre 1954.
[aml4] Article by Aimé Michel, in the ufology bulletin The Saucerian Bulletin, Gray Barker editor, USA, Volume 1, No 3, page 2, September 15, 1956.
[aml2] "Flying Saucers in Europe - The Crisis of Autumn 1954", article by Aimé Michel in Fate magazine, USA, page 28, August 1957.
[----] Jacques Vallée.
[----] Jean Graziana.
[----] "UFO Reports from the Files of the CIA", by Richard Hall, Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), USA.
[ldl1] "Les archives de 1954 pour l'Allier", catalogue in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #128, page 16, October 1973.
[ioi1] "Un demi-siècle d'activités O.V.N.I. dans l'Allier", catalog in the ufology magazine INFO-OVNI, France, special issue, pages 4,25, December 1975.
[uda1] "17 Aug 1954 - Vincennes, France", web page by the UFOdna website, circa 2008, at www.ufodna.com/uf11/uf3/113148.htm
[uda2] "17 Aug 1954 - Montlucon, France", web page by the UFOdna website, circa 2008, at www.ufodna.com/uf02/uf0/020533.htm
[ubk1] Online database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, found in 2016, at ufodatenbank.de

Document history:

Version:	Created/Changed by:	Date:	Change Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	January 22, 2005	First published.
1.0	Patrick Gross	December 29, 2009	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version.
1.1	Patrick Gross	March 20, 2010	Additions [uda1], [uda2].
1.2	Patrick Gross	November 3, 2016	Addition [aml4].
1.3	Patrick Gross	November 20, 2016	Addition [ubk1].
1.4	Patrick Gross	June 26, 2019	Additions [ldl1], [ioi1].
1.5	Patrick Gross	July 15, 2022	Addition [aml2].

This page was last updated on July 15, 2022.