The 1954 French flap:

Many residents of Marseille and the Provence saw the "fireball" of Sunday evening

but, less prone to exaggeration than people of the North and the Americans, they hardly believe in the flying saucers!

Our short article of last Tuesday (cf. "Provençal" for August 24) "a fireball in the sky of Plan-de-Cuques" brought us a flood of shooting stars, or rather observations of various readers. We join below some of them to the file of the much discussed "flying saucers".

We would have liked to bring on the phenomene which obviously did happen (this is all that can be claimed) in the night from Sunday to Monday, a more authorized opinion than that of ordinary citizens looking at "the flying rocket". Unfortunately, so to speak! we are in period of holidays and our official astronomers rest under other skies (without perhaps even observing them), so that the Observatory of Marseille did not observe anything at all. The phenomenon of Sunday evening is thus not approved and our meteor has no certified name!

Let us recall the observation by Mr. Henri Costa, 2 avenue Stanquin in Plan-de-Cuques. It refers to a "luminous trail" supposed to be "a fireball".

It was, he said, a kind of ball of fire giving the impression to "roll" in a quite long projection for finally disaggregating while throwing out many sparks. I roughly locate this phenomenon in the sky, North-western side, direction from East to West, relatively low height". Do the following testimonies match this observation?

"Like a Christmas tree ball..."

Mr. Bernard, in Cadolive, saw the fireball Sunday evening "around 8 p.m.". (He did not have its watch at the time). In any event, his glance was "caught" by this fulgurating gleam which "was born" so to speak under his eyes, and he gave a very detailed description of the phenomenon:

"It was initially a ball which rolled, but a ball which had the very clear relief that these so fragile multicoloured balls that one hangs at the Christmas trees have. I cannot find a better comparison. The glare was as sharp, as intense.

"At its appearance, it was of dark red color, like in fusion, then it changed to an incandescent electric blue, then to the purple, as a point was formed, lengthened, to become a kind of pear, a very round water drop fraying suddenly.

"The color changed to the pink, then to the yellow, and I saw the initial ball disappear, while the tail, nonshoddy until there, but of only one line, disposed [sic, probably "dispersed" ], like "pulverized" in quantity of sparks. This last step, swell and sparks appeared metal white in fusion to me. No trace remained after the disappearance of the phenomenon, although I looked for a long time at the location where it had occurred.

"The forms, but especially the surprisingly dazzling colors forced my attention intensely. Its speed was much slower than usual "shooting stars", this is what allowed me to fully see the phenomenon.

"The fireball, actually quite low, stood, for me, above Saint-Savournin, east-west direction approximately; descending course, little pronounced arc."

Two testimonies in Marseille

Miss Josette Testa, 49, boulevard Boisson, La Blancarde, writes: "I can assure you that Sunday evening at about 7:55 p.m., I was at the corner of Avenue Foch and Boulevard Boisson when I saw passing in the sky, at an extraordinary pace a fireball leaving a trail. It did not seem to be very high." Our correspondent joined to this observation a rough sketch outlining the east-west direction indicated otherwise.

At the Roucas-Blanc, someone saw the "fireball". A nurse who wishes anonymity, also saw the phenomenon: "I live in the Plaine district. Much to my amazement, when I was at my window, I saw this thing pass. It was Sunday night, at about 07:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. At the cry that I pushed my neighbors came to the window, but it was too late. This machine had the shape of a green rocket, very bright, and threw very clear green sparks. It gave the impression of having been launched horizontally, to be quite low and to spin. Is it the same meteor that Mr. Costa, in Plan-de-Cuques, saw? I do not know, in any case I have seen it well. This is all the information I can give you."

In these testimonies from Marseille should be added those of David Achilles, Cabriès, which locates the phenomenon at 8:30 p.m. and a dispatch from Martigues that still the same night of Sunday to Monday, reported a "fireball" likely a meteor, that shed a very bright white clarity, which broke shortly after."

Provencal observers are cautious

We can only honor the perfect objectivity of these volunteer observers. They simply say what they saw, they do not interpret. It should be noted that they do not use the term "flying saucer". Yet they are unanimous in saying that they believe it was something else than shooting stars.

Let's imitate their caution! At most let's risk assumptions. Is the fireball in Marseille the same as those that were seen in Vernon (Eure) the same night? Over there one spoke about a "carrousel" (sic) of "flying saucers" (re-sic) which would have lasted three quarters of an hour. Reality... or interpretation?

In addition, an aviation magazine in the United States reported that two huge meteors currently revolve at 450 and 1.000 kilometers of the earth. One even believed in "artificial satellites" obviously... Soviet! An astronomer of New Mexico [Dr. Lincoln LaPaz] ensured that the phenomenon was natural. The French scientists are skeptics. We thus refrain from thinking that these meteors observed in the U.S.A. could be those that were seen in the Provence sky in the night from Sunday to Monday.

Altogether, Marseille residents (although having seen many science-fiction movies) do not think immediately of a flying saucer when they are witness of a celestial phenomenon.

[us]sual, this is what allowed me to fully see the phenomenon.

"The fireball, actually quite low, stood, for me, above Saint-Savournin, east-west direction approximately; descending course, little pronounced arc."

Two testimonies in Marseille

Miss Josette Testa, 49, boulevard Boisson, La Blancarde, writes: "I can assure you that Sunday evening at about 7:55 p.m., I was at the corner of Avenue Foch and Boulevard Boisson when I saw passing in the sky, at an extraordinary pace a fireball leaving a trail. It did not seem to be very high." Our correspondent joined to this observation a rough sketch outlining the east-west direction indicated otherwise.

At the Roucas-Blanc, someone saw the "fireball". A nurse who wishes anonymity, also saw the phenomenon: "I live in the Plaine district. Much to my amazement, when I was at my window, I saw this thing pass. It was Sunday night, at about 07:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. At the cry that I pushed my neighbors came to the window, but it was too late. This machine had the shape of a green rocket, very bright, and threw very clear green sparks. It gave the impression of having been launched horizontally, to be quite low and to spin. Is it the same meteor that Mr. Costa, in Plan-de-Cuques, saw? I do not know, in any case I have seen it well. This is all the information I can give you."

In these testimonies from Marseille should be added those of David Achilles, Cabriès, which locates the phenomenon at 8:30 p.m. and a dispatch from Martigues that still the same night of Sunday to Monday, reported a "fireball" likely a meteor, that shed a very bright white clarity, which broke shortly after."

Provencal observers are cautious

We can only honor the perfect objectivity of these volunteer observers. They simply say what they saw, they do not interpret. It should be noted that they do not use the term "flying saucer". Yet they are unanimous in saying that they believe it was something else than shooting stars.

Let's imitate their caution! At most let's risk assumptions. Is the fireball in Marseille the same as those that were seen in Vernon (Eure) the [missing part]

[Missing part]. Last month, at the theater Silvain, when a kind of shooting star "broke" in the sky just when Robert Lamoureux was on the stage, most of the audience nevertheless kept cool! They believed that it was a staging "trick" designed to showcase the popular singer.