The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 30-Aug-54-Creil.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper L'Oise-Matin, of Beauvais, reported on page 1 for September 1, 1954, that in Creil, "Monday evening", thus on August 30, 1954, around 8 p.m.; a luminous phenomenon, a very apparent glow, had been seen by civilians in Creil, and by several officers from the nearby air base.
The newspaper did not give more information and wondered whether it was the "passage of a remote-controlled rocket or a saucer?"
[Ref. lon1:] NEWSPAPER "L'OISE-MATIN":
|
SINCE 1947, the "Flying Saucers" have crisscrossed the skies all over the world, without anyone being able to unravel the mystery.
On various occasions, transport planes were surrounded by curious craft emitting bluish radiation. Supersonic planes were able to approach others, after hectic pursuits, without however being able to reach them because their speed was such that at the decisive moment, the "saucers" left the humans without difficulties.
A voluminous "Flying Saucers" file is kept preciously in the chests of the pentagon and these phenomena are studied with interest:
Are these unmanned projectiles coming from the old continent, or are we in the presence of aerial ships launched by other planets? This is the question posed by scientists around the world who, for their part, have had the opportunity to observe a large number of similar phenomena through the lenses of their telescopes.
The famous "Flying saucers" appeared among us and several reliable observers just reported their presence in the sky of the Oise.
In Creil, Monday evening, around 8 p.m., a luminous phenomenon was observed. Was it the passage of a remote-controlled rocket or a saucer? We do not yet know, but one fact is certain, it is that a very apparent gleam was seen by civilians in Creil, and by several officers of the air base.
The director of an important establishment in Attichy sends us the following message: "Yesterday evening, Monday, around 8:15 p.m., standing in a dark room, staring out the window, I saw in the darkening sky at that time, a ball of fire appearing to fall perpendicularly in an approximate north-south direction. The phenomenon lasted several seconds and the ball was moving at a very high speed."
Our interlocutor tells us that the incandescence of this thing was roughly similar to that of a motorcycle lantern seen at night or that of a 100 watt lamp that would go off. "The thing passed out in the sky. I expected to hear an explosion afterwards, but no, nothing."
Are we in the presence of "flying saucers" or unmanned vehicles? The mystery remains unsolved.
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 30 August 1954 at 20:00 in Creil, France "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object was observed by a male witness."
The sources are indicated as Project Bluebook, (USAF) Blue Book files counted in official statistics; Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); Hall, Richard H., UFO Reports from the Files of the CIA, Fund for UFO Research, Washington.
[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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19540830 | 30.08.1954 | Creil | France | 20.00 | NL |
The 30 August 08:20 p.m. meteor.
|
As soon as 1958, Aimé Michel published [am1] very interesting pages on the observations for August 30, 1954: it was a meteor, and he uses this example of a meteor event to show the similarities and differences between UFO reports and meteor reports. He notes that this meteor was reported by hundreds of witnesses in more than 20 departments. It was seen finally exploding by a witness at La Porte des Lilas in Paris.
It however appears that except Aimé Michel, almost none of the authors of the other later sources publishing these sightings took care to give the explanation. Yet these other authors are generally aware of Aimé Michel's book, which they sometimes quote for other cases, as if they had a quite selective reading method... or as if they chose to use the poorest sources instead...
Neither did they understand the descriptions of the sightings. They call "UFO" what was obviously a meteor, and let their readers believe in an unexplained observation.
The sighting places for the matching cases are:
| Vanves | 48.824 | -2.289 |
|---|---|---|
| Buxerolles | 46.616 | -0.4833 |
| Le Coudray-sur-Thelle | 49.305 | -2.124 |
| Angers | 47.466 | -0.550 |
| Paris | 48.856 | -2.351 |
| Creil | 49.258 | -2.479 |
The plotted sighting places:
|
The case files and their sources for this meteor event:
| Vanves, Hauts-de-Seine. | 21:00 |
| Buxerolles, Vienne. | 20:30 |
| Coudray-sur-Thelle, Oise. | ~20:30 |
| Angers, Maine-et-Loire. | 20:20 |
| Paris. | ~20:20 |
| Creil, Oise. | 20:00 |
Note on the sighting times: it would be silly to mistake the given hours for stop watch measurements, like some ufologists did in some cases (For example Charles Garreau...). People did not inevitably walk around with a wristwatch then, did not inevitably look at a clock, did not think inevitably of asking or checking the hour. The press was then satisfied enough to write things like "at about 08:30 p.m.". The most probable hour is "approximately 08:20 p.m."; it is the less "rounded at half an hour".
What the witnesses said, when it is known:
| Vanves, Hauts-de-Seine. | ? |
| Buxerolles, Vienne. | Luminous |
| Coudray-sur-Thelle, Oise. | glowing ball seeming to fall. |
| Angers, Maine-et-Loire. | Fast brown disc surrounded of green gleams. Shining disc-shaped light followed of a rather short tail, very fast, sems to fall. |
| Paris. | Luminous circular flying object. |
| Creil, Oise. | Luminous phenomenon, a very apparent glow. |
These descriptions are concise, they are the ordinary words of ordinary people, noted by newspapermen subjected to brevity rules, they are not scientific descriptions. What is clear is that there is no strangeness at all in the reports, no "impossible manoeuvers", no "humanoid occupants", no beams, no landings etc.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Creil, Oise
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | March 4, 2010 | First published, [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 30, 2011 | A search on the web and in my documentation did not reveal other sources. Explanation changed from "Not looked for yet" to "The meteor for that day". Addition of the "Note on the meteor for that day". |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | November 20, 2016 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | May 6, 2021 | Additions [lon1], Summary. |
