The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 22-Oct-54-Brest.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In the 1970's and 1980's, the GEPSI ufology group had reproduced texts of press clippings of regional observations, without giving the exact sources.
One of the texts said that on October 22, 1954, in Brest, several residents had seen around 07:30 p.m. "the passage of a flying globe moving at high speed over the harbor of Brest."
[Ref. gei1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "GEPSI":
THEY WERE NOT WEATHER-BALLOONS
As we reported yesterday, several residents of Brest state to have observed Friday evening the passage of a flying sphere moving at high speed above the harbor of Brest.
On the basis of the principle that the simplest explanations are always the best, some people wanted to bring back the nature of the phenomena observed to a more ... trivial concept.
"Couldn't these luminous spheres be quite simply a weather-balloon as those used by the weather services?" The explanation would be agreeably prosaic... and reassuring. Unfortunately, it "does not fit". It is true that the weather station of Guipavas releases, all twelve hours, one of these weather balloons which, we are told, frequently and quickly reach the altitude of 20 000 meters. But these machines are always launched at 03:00 p.m. and 3 in the morning. However, it is towards 07:30 p.m. that the witnesses to which we refer saw last Friday the mysterious object. That day, the wind blew rather strongly to the west, and at the hour indicated by our compatriots, the released balloon of 3 p.m. was already above the Paris area. In addition, the weather balloons are driven only by the speed of the wind, so that they cannot move at the indicated vertiginous speeds. Lastly, their altitude challenges any human perception.
References: PI 26/1O/54
[Ref. voi1:] "ARCHIVES VIGIE OVNI 29":
Brest ( 29 200 ), 22 October 1954 ...
Testimony nr. FR 29 200 1954 10 22 .. ..
Available documents:
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Possible plane or meteor. The information is far too meager to form a sure opinion.
It should be noted that the day before at the same jour in Brest and in the region, a meteor passed; it is not impossible that the "Friday" of the newspaper should have been "Thursday".
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Brest, Finistère, round, ball, multiple, fast
[----] 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 | January 14, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 7, 2017 | Addition [voi1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | January 4, 2018 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, was "Possible plane or meteor." |
