The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 54-Hautes-Pyrénées.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
When the "flying saucers" flap reached its top in 1954 in France, the Parisian magazine Radar started a contest promising one million old francs to whoever would manage to provide them with a photo of "flying saucer" that their jury would authenticate.
In their issue of November 14, 1954, the magazine showed among other photos that had reached them, this one:
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They commented that this photo, very small, came from Mr. Sio, from Saint-Erne, in the Aisne, who allegedly obtained it in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Mr. Sio did not specify which town appears in his picture - the magazine said nothing about the date and time.
"After scrutinizing it for a long time", the Radar jury suggested that it could be just a drop of the development product, but said they were willing to consider a larger format print. The case seems to have ended there.
At the end of the 1950s, a French archivist, Guy Quincy, interested in the question of the "mysterious celestial objects", compiled a catalog of observations, in which he noted, without giving either source or details, a observation in early October 1954 at an unknown hour in the Hautes-Pyrénées department, of several unidentified flying objects, noting that there may have been photos.
[Ref. rdr1:] "RADAR" MAGAZINE:
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It deserves a review. The document provided is so small that it seems surprisingly sincere. It is therefore important to examine it very closely. Its author, Mr. Sio, who lives in St-Erne, in the Aisne, allegedly obtained it in the Hautes-Pyrénées. But he does not name the charming town that we see in his photo. After having scrutinized it for a long time, our jurors ended up wondering if it was not just a vulgar drop of hyposulphite. But, of course, they are unanimously willing to study a print on a larger format. Only such a document will make it possible to accept or reject this saucer with certainty.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
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Beginning of October [1954]
[... Other cases...]
: Dept. of the Haute-Pyrénées: several,unident.flying.obj./photos?
[... Other cases...]
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No report on a possible sighting seems to have been written; we may be dealing with what was called in the 2000s a "surprise photo", that is to say a photo in which the author thinks he sees a UFO when there was nothing seen when he took it.
In this specific case, the suggestion of the radar jury seems very likely to me: the three "things" in the photo look like stains, which could well be caused by drops of the development product.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Hautes-Pyrénées, Sio, photo, photograph, surprise photo, daytine
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 24, 2022 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | June 6, 2022 | Addition [rdr1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [rdr1]. Case date changed, was "beg. October 1954". Explanations changed, were "Totally insufficient information." |
