The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 23-Oct-54-Vedène.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Provençal for October 26, 1954, reported by his press correspondent in Avignon that an "unidentified object" had been seen in the sky between Vedène and Le Pontet, "Saturday", so on October 23, 1954, between 06:30 p.m. and 06:45 p.m.
It was a girl of Entraigues, Miss Marcelle Espiard, who was cycling on the road between Vedene and Le Pontet, who had seen at a distance of about one kilometer, towards the East, a spherical object which seemed to rise and then descend into the sky, changing from bright red to white color.
Without being very positive, Miss Espiard at one time had the impression that other smaller luminous balls were floating around the first one for some time.
Frightened, the girl had alerted passers-by who also clearly spotted the object.
It disappeared completely around 06:45 p.m., but other people reportedly saw it a few moments later.
[Ref. lpl1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PROVENCAL":
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Rome (A.P.).
Many "flying saucers" were observed yesterday in Italy.
Cotanzaro, in the south of Calabria, to Pesaro, on the Adriatic, in the North of Italy, strange flying machines were reported.
Fishermen cruising by San Bernardino, Fano de Pesaro and even Ostie, near Rome, stated to have seen a red and green "object" crossing the sky at a terrifying speed.
"Saucers" were also observed in Urbino Chieti and Forlimpopoli.
According to certain witnesses, they were followed of a green trail. According to others, they had the shape of a mushroom with a tail [obvious descriptions of meteors].
In Chieti, the observed craft was circular of a diameter of ten meters and moved at low altitude.
In Pesaro in the north of Ancône on the Adriatic, many people stated to have seen an incandescent red sphere, with a bluish trail.
In Trieste a score of witnesses stated yesterday morning to have observed a flying disc at high altitude, in the direction of the North-East, and leaving behind itself a luminous trail.
Saturday evening, the aeronautical services of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs announced that certain specialized people observed "strange objects" moving at more than 2000 kilometers per hour, along the Thyrenian coast at twilight and during the night.
Avignon (C.P.).
In the evening of Saturday, between 06:30 p.m.and 06:45 p.m., a girl of Entraigues, Miss Marcelle Espiard, who rode a bicycle on the road between Vedène and Le Pontet, saw at a distance of approximately a kilometer, in direction of the East, a spherical object which seemed to rise then to go down again in the sky while passing from sharp red to white.
Frightened, the girl called passers by which, too, located the object clearly.
It disappeared completely around 06:45. However, other people are said to have seen it a few moments later. Without being very affirmative, Miss Espiard had, at a given moment, the impression that other smaller luminous balls floated during some time around the first.
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The center of Le Pontet is in a straight line at 3.5 km southeast of the center of Vedène.
From this place at the time of observation and in the eastern direction of the observation, the night has just fallen, and there is no astronomical body that could explain this observation. Mars, for example, was due south. The moon, for example, had set at 04:00 p.m.
This leaves me with an "unidentified" of uncertain strangeness, and not investigated. Maybe it was a plane or a helicopter.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Vedène, Vaucluse, Marcelle Espiard, road, bicycle, multiple, object, round, red, white, manoeuvre, balls
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | March 4, 2006 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 24, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 24, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet". |
