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The 1954 French flap:

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October 30, 1954, Montididier, Somme:

Reference for this case: 30-Oct-54-Montididier.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard, in their Montdidier issue, reported on November 1, 1954, on page 4 that "Saturday" - therefore October 30, 1954 - around 3 a.m., Mr. Marcel Réty, grocer, place de l'Hotel-de-Ville, who was going to the market of Amiens had seen in the sky with some fright "a kind of flying car wheel", very luminous, yellow rather than orange, moving without any noise "at high speed" in the south-north direction.

He estimated that the craft was moving at least at 2000 meters of altitude, and the newspaper explained that he "now believes in flying saucers."

The local Montdidier weekly Journal du Santerre reported more briefly this sighting on November 5, 1954.

Reports:

[Ref. cpd1:] NEWSPAPER "LE COURRIER PICARD":

THE FLYING "AUTOMOBILE WHEEL"

Finally! One of our fellow citizens saw something. Saturday, around 3 in the morning, Mr. Marcel Réty, grocer, place de l'Hotel-de-Ville, who went to the market of Amiens saw in the sky, not without some fright - he humbly evokes - "a kind of wheel of auto volante ", very bright, yellow rather than orange, which moved without any noise at high speed in the south-north direction.

Our friendly trader estimates that the craft was moving at least at two thousand meters of altitude. He now believes in flying saucers.

[Ref. jds1:] NEWSPAPER "JOURNAL DU SANTERRE":

One of our fellow Citizens
saw a flying wheel

While he was preparing to leave Montidier to go to the market of Amiens, Saturday, at 3 a.m., Mr. Marcel Réty, the friendly Montdidiérian trader saw, flying over the city of Montdidier, axis South-North, an extremely luminous flying disc, moving at breakneck speed. Mr. Réty told us that he was particularly frightened by this appearance.

Explanations:

Probable Chinese lantern.

Here is why:

The "yellow rather than orange.
The lack of acceleration of "impossible" maneuvers.
The inspiration recently from Beuvry-les-Béthunes.
Another case solved as such near here on November 3, 1954.

Ci-dessus:

A modern Chinese lantern.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

Montididier, Somme, Marcel Réty, grocer, market, fightened, round, luminous, yellow, moving, silent, fast

Sources:

[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.

[cpd1] Article in the regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard, Montdidier issue, France, page 4, November 1, 1954.
[jds1] Article in the weekly local newspaper Journal du Santerre, Montdidier, Somme, France, page 2, November 5, 1954.

Document history:

Version:	Created/Changed by:	Date:	Change Description:
1.0	Patrick Gross	February 6, 2020	First published.
1.1	Patrick Gross	March 11, 2020	Addition [jds1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "The local Montdidier weekly Journal du Santerre..."

This page was last updated on March 11, 2020.