ufo - UFOS at close sight: the 1954 French flap, September 30, Marcilly-sur-Vienne, Indre-et-Loire

Reference for this case: 30-sep-54-Marcilly-sur-Vienne.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Reports:

The seven workers of the quarry of Marcilly-sur-Vienne told us their strange adventure

The seven concordant testimonies of the workers of a quarry in Marcilly-sur-Vienne who, on Thursday, around 4:30 p.m., saw near them a mysterious craft and its passenger, intrigued the people of the region.

We were able to interview Mr. Georges Gatey, chief of the building site and main witness of the event, as well as his six comrades.

We report the impression that these men are sincere and trustworthy. Their statements, they confirmed them Friday and Saturday to professional investigators who did not fail, in their turn, to be impressed by the emphasis of sincerity of the witnesses.

Mr. Gatey and his five workers were busy pulling sand and gravel from a quarry near the road near Marcilly. Everyone was at his workplace, some with a mechanical shovel, others with a hoist. Mr. Gatey was on the sidelines, closer to the end of the quarry. He was the first to see the machine, a device of circular shape surmounted by a dome, apparently equipped with blades similar to those of a helicopter.

The machine was standing motionless one meter from the ground, the blades turning very rapidly. It did not land on the ground.

A man of small size, 1.50 m to 1.55 m approximately

Wearing a helmet of opaque material on the head, resembling scrambled glass, dressed in a combination of neutral tone, booted with booties, it stood next to it. He had in his hand a kind of big revolver or a pipe, and on the chest a very brilliant disc, emitting a jet of intense light.

No one in the quarry, which lies below several meters from the road and the surrounding grounds, had seen the apparatus arrive and no one heard it. Everyone was busy at work and the machines that worked at the same time were very noisy.

Mr. Gatey is formal: the machine remained there for a half minute, enough time to be able to examine it. The site supervisor is an excellent draftsman. His first reflex, after his astonishment, was to run to the tent of the site to get a paper, a pencil and draw the sketch of

The saucers Courier...

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

the extraordinary machine and its occupant.

My legs were cut

"But my legs were cut," he said, "and I could not take a step, nailed to the ground certainly by the effects of the luminous ray emitted by the man.

Mr. Gatey was at that moment about fifteen meters from the craft and two meters below. He saw it from below. The machine, it should be pointed out, was at the entrance of the quarry, on the edge of the excavation, 3 meters from the road. On this road came a truck which came to get a load at the quarry, driven by M. Amirault, who saw the quarry men look towards the entrance of the shipyard, and he also looked. He saw "something gray" that was not there usually. This thing rose in the air.

That's it

Mr. Gatey also told us: "The man climbed back into his craft without I being able to tell by where, and then the craft rose vertically in jerks and a noise like the jet engines Of fighter planes. At 200 meters of altitude, roughly, it emitted a fog that completely concealed it and disappeared before our eyes."

"That's it," said the other witnesses of the scene.

Moved to the vicinity of fear, then men tacitly shut up about their adventure of the afternoon when in the evening they found themselves in the small restaurant of Parçay-aux-Vienne where they take their meal.

It was not until much later, around 7:30 p.m. or 20 p.m., that they decided to speak.

Alone, I would not have said anything

"If I had been been alone, I would never have said anything about it," said Mr. Gatey, for fear of being the laughing stock of the country.

The site supervisor had gone to the edge of the quarry to see whether the craft had left any traces. He hoped to find some burned grass but there was nothing like it, only the grass soiled and trampled by trucks.

The 7 men, 6 of them at least being 30 years old, are sympathetically known in the area where they have been working for some time and there is no reason to suppose that they have attempted to set up a huge joke. Mr. Gatey drew from memory the silhouette of the craft and its passenger.

His comrades, MM. René Rougier, André Beurrois, André Sèche, Georges Lubanowich and Maurice Dubrocs, in the presence of the sketch, affirmed: "It is this shape that the apparatus in question had." The craft could measure 4 m. 50 in diameter and 2 meters in thickness. It was gray.

In [?] of Bressuire

[Missing part]

[en]terprise Goursault of Melle, came back to start their air compressor.

In the Indre

Châteauroux, 3. - Mrs. widow Janiki, residing in the village of Le Cerisier, commune of Levroux (Indre), told the Gendarmerie that she had seen in the sky a luminous machine with a diameter of about 3 meters and which Was at the height of the buildings.

Ms. widow Lacotte witnessed the same phenomenon.

Mrs. Baron of Vatan (the Indre), said she saw last night a luminous ball in the sky.

She alerted her husband, as well as about fifteen people from her neighborhood, all of whom saw the yellow-greenish craft rising and falling in the sky at a very high altitude.

In the Nièvre

Nevers, 3. -- A representative of an insurance company in Clamecy and several residents of Corbigny said they saw an orange luminous disc moving in the sky.

SAINT BRIEUC

Several people claimed to have seen, at 300 or 400 meters from them, last night, around 8:45 p.m., a "flying cigar", at an altitude of about 50 meters.

LILLE

Mr. Anicet Corneille, an agricultural worker, said he saw a cigar-shaped craft 8 to 10 meters long by 3 meters in thickness last night in Comines; which evolved at about forty meters in height and emitted a sharp violet glow.

MONTCEAU-LES-MINES

Two bricklayers, MM. Romain Sebastiani and Buratto, both cyclist racers, said they saw a craft take off with a shrill whistle along the road from Blanzy to Montceau.

A written question to the Minister of the Air

In a written question, Mr. Jean Nocher, Deputy for the Loire, informed the Secretary of the Air about the emotion aroused in the public by the numerous and various testimonies concerning the "flying saucers".

He asked him "if his predecessors in the Secretary of State for the Air had been concerned, as in the US and U.S.S.R., to open an investigation about the presence in our atmosphere of unidentified flying objects?

"If so, he asks him to publish the results of these investigations, if not, he asks him to set up a committee widely extended to all the scientific branches concerned in order to study this phenomenon objectively."

400 kilometers away, it is the same saucer, apparently, that Mr. Cyprien Bacquet (above on the left) and Mr. George Gatay saw, opposite on the right in insert). The drawings which they made one and the other of the phenomenon that they observed (above in the center) resemble each other, indeed, surprisingly. Mr. Bacqué, engineer architect, saw the mysterious machine above Pau, at ten thousand meters of altitude, at the same time as of the thousands of residents of Pau. Mr. Gatay, site foreman, saw with one meter above ground-level and fifteen away meters at the edge of a career in Pau, at the same time as the six workmen who worked with him. For Mr. Bacqué, who seen it at eleven hour, September 30, it was a sphere evolving in the strati, of red color, from which four tubes left. The engineer observed it with his telescope during three fifteen minutes before it disappeared towards the west. It is eight days ago at 03:30 p.m., that Mr. Gatey saw suddenly the stopped machine. In front of the saucer stood a small man of 1 m 50 with a leather helmet and boots (above on the right). A ray froze the witness on the spot. The man regained the machine which rose by small hops and disappeared. Mr. Bacqué and Mr. Gatey do not know themselves.

[Caption of photograph on the left:] Gatey at the site of the sighting.

[Caption of photograph on the right:] The saucer is said to have landed where the truck is.

Construction site foreman of a career of Marcilly-sur-Vienne (the Indre-et-Loire), Mr. Gatey is adamant; "I was extracting sand with my six workmen when suddenly, I see the machine. A circular aircraft, topped by a dome, equipped with blades similar to those of an helicopter. Close to it, a small man (approximately 1 m. 50) dressed in a one piece suit, wearing a helmet made out of opaque matter, with ankle boots at his feet. He holds a kind of pipe in his hand. I could look during 30 seconds, with my comrades, this puzzling display. Suddenly the individual went up in his cupola, and the apparatus took height vertically with a noise of jet airplane, then disappeared in a kind of fog which this hellish apparatus emitted."

The article underneath has been published in the daily newspaper Le Courrier de l'Ouest, Angers, France, on October 19, 1954.

Space visitors, these unknowns:

The Martian looked at them in silence and when Georges Gatay, the construction site foreman who felt himself invaded by a strange torpor raised the eyes towards the edge of the career, the most fantastic appearance which he had been able to imagine froze him on the spot. That occurred here two weeks ago hardly, and since the strange visit, this solid boy aged about thirty years does almost not eat anymore and hardly sleeps.

It was about 04:30 p.m. and the five companions extracted gravels and the stones from the quarry of Marcilly-sur-Vienne for the Bridges-and-Roadways using a mechanical excavator and a certain number of noisy machines. Dug at the edge of the road of Nouatre, this quarry is the only excavation in the middle of a vast plain deprived of trees. These five workmen, Mr. Rougier, Dried, Berois, Lubanevic and Villeneuve, expected a sixth, Mr. Amirault, the driver of a heavy truck which came to fill the tank. The sunny air of this end of afternoon was clear and without the least cloud. At this point in time the thing arrived...

"I am not hallucinating, George Gatay thought while putting the hand on the hair, it is really a flying saucer and a Martian." Successively, his work comrades looked in his direction and made the same thinking. A circular object, surmounted of a dome of a metallic gray, stood motionless approximately one meter above the ground. It seemed that blades turning at very high speed were attached to it. The whole had the appearance of a reversed bowl. But the strangest of all was this small being of one meter fifty five approximately, who stood motionless in front of it. Dressed of a kind of plastic suit, fitted of booties of the same matter, he carried on the head an opaque helmet which covered his face.

"A kind of projector emitting a very soft gleam was attached to his chest and attracted our glances", the witnesses told later. "In the being from another world's hand was a sort of metallic revolver or tube. The appearance lasted only one minute and half maybe, then the individual disappeared little by little as an image which is erased on a screen and the apparatus went up jerkily towards the sky. Arrived at a hundred meters from the ground, it was surrounded by a circular cloud, reminding of an artificial white smoke and it disappeared." It is at this time that Mr. Amirault arrived. From his truck's cabin, he only had the time to see the strange machine before it disappeared in the cloud.

To the investigators who pressed them with questions, the witnesses of this astral visit answered categorically: "we are not crackpots, we are sure of what we saw."

Today, these witnesses are much less categorical. Their little story made its way and in front of the scoffing and skeptic population, they adopted the most careful attitude: that of silence.

Other people in France saw or touched these mysterious beings. A child of Morez who had never heard about flying saucers said to have been kissed by a being "as tall as a door and shining like a fridge", and the spanking did not silence this 12 year old kid. Finally, here's a real bomb. An Englishman states that he is the first earthman to have come into contact with a Martian.

"He had a charming smile as few earthmen have." And Cedric Allingham who will publish in London the story of this short encounter raised the arm to greet the Martian who answered him courteously. This Englishman, an astronomy buff and a professional ornithologist, did not suffer from hallucination either and provided in support of his claims several photographs and the sworn testimony of a peasant who witnessed the scene.

C. Allingham's book will be translated before long into French and the curious will then have all the leisure to criticize it. Let's retain only the seductive description of the space visitor. He was large, well proportioned and his voice reminded of the sound of running water. The only strange details in this silhouette were two small tubes connected by a wire engaged in the nostrils of the unknown and when he was turned back a strange strap whose utility was not discovered. Let us wait until the thing from another world decides to land again to explain this.

"Flying saucers have landed". Under this title, the great champion of the interplanetary diplomatic relations Georges Adamski launched with the U.S.A. the account of his enthralling conversations with the Venusians. The book was a best-seller translated at once and reissued several times, but the declarations of the author, apparently too impressed by scince fiction stories, did not receive a confirmation yet and perhaps never will. Like Cédric Allingham, Adamski proves his claims by plaster catsters of Venusian footprints and photographs of their marvellous flying apparatus. He even had, it seems, the great honor to travel during twenty minutes in one of these machines and could discuss lengthily with the Venusians without opening the mouth... by thought transference. H. G Wells is very clearly beaten by Adamski and the author of the "War of the Worlds" hardly had imagination.

[Photo captions:]

Those who have seen "it":

Mrs GUILLMOTEAU in the Vendée
Georges GATAY, chef de chantier en Touraine
Young Henri CLEMENT in Deux-Sèvres

This weekley newspaper published a series of third hand drawings of some of the different shapes of flying saucers allegedly reported in France in 1954:

Marcilly-sur-Vienne

Traditional saucer with cupola, Saturnian. Halation, luminescent paralysing propulsions gases and ray. It was seen at the beginning of October by Mr. Gatey, construction site foreman, within fifteen meters of the ground.

The author indicates that in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, west central France, the foreman of a quarry alleged that "a small helmeted and booted entity, carrying a sort of ray pistol, fired at him and six of his mates, with a "luminous and paralyzing ray."

Marc Thirouin wrote an article in which he stated that witnesses at that time had often complained about the distortion that a certain press inflicted to their statements; about being sunmitted to vexatious insinuations from the same press as to their mental balance, their good faith or their sobriety, about pressures to force them to say what they did not see or to modify in a sentational or negative way what they claimed to have experienced, about threats of prosecution for contempt of court in case they caused an unnecessary and ridiculous investigation; and the discredit which usually fell on them when they "were thus shaken and bullied in all directions", etc.

The Nouâtre quarrymen affair. - On September 30, 1954, in broad daylight, 8 quarrymen found themselves face to face with an unknown being and his F.S., in which he left. Some investigators ridiculed them, after having "cooked" them for a long time, and claimed that these men had been drinking. Imagine: out of 8 men all were drunk, at the same time, including the foreman, whose testimony confirms that of his men!

When our local correspondent, Mr. Grondeau, tried to clarify the matter, the damage was done. The witnesses were "absent," and the locals who had heard their first statements were silent. Here is the report of our correspondent, which I reproduce, apologizing for replacing the names of places and people with A's and B's, X's and Y's so as not to cause further stress to the witnesses:

"To begin with, I went to A, to a shopkeeper, Mr. X. While chatting with him I asked him:

- Wasn't there a story of F.S. around here?

He replied:

- Yes. One evening, two workers came rushing in. One of them, the foreman, gave me a sketch of a craft on a slate. Here is this sketch.

But Mr. X suddenly broke off:

- Ah! Yes, he said; they had drunk 1 liter of cognac and 1 liter of alcohol; they no longer knew what they were saying!

Then Mr. X stammered and said he didn't know anything. (So why this preciously preserved sketch?)

I then went to B, to Mrs. Y, another shopkeeper, who knew the witnesses well. She was very kind. But at the first word about F.S. she looked bewildered and stirred, declaring that she did not know, that I should to see with Mr. Z, in C.

The latter might have spoken, but his wife arrived and shouted:

- Again! another investigation into this story!

And Mr. Z didn't say anything except that one of the eyewitnesses, Mr. W, could be seen at D.

I went there. Mr. W was away... But I saw his son. He pretended to know nothing about the matter. However he told me:

- To get rid of the police (sic) my father said he saw a cloud of smoke rise in the sky.

To judge his reaction; I asked him for the names of the other witnesses, as expected, I got nothing from him. As for the foreman, Mr. Gatey, no one agreed to name him...

In the localities of E, F, G, everyone had their mouths shut the same way. I wrote to Mr. W but he did not answer me.

During my investigation, I learned that one of the quarrymen had just been sentenced to three months of jail time. I understand that it was on the occasion of this affair (I will be careful not to be affirmative)."

The next day [October 25, 1954], at Marcilly-sur-Vienne, in France, five quarry workmen alleged they saw a saucer with a dome land and observed its occupant, who was about 5 feet tall, when they approached, the occupant, who wore an opaque helmet, didn't jump back into the saucer, but simply disappeared from the scene gradually, like the Chesire cat. When he had completely faded away, the object began ascending in short, jumpy spurts; at about 100 feet, it discharged a cloud into which it disappeared. 41/

41/ France Dimanche, 1O/3/54; Le Courrier de L'Ouest (Angers), 10/19/54

The author indicates that on September 30, 1954 at 04:30 p.m., a spacecraft and its occupant were observed by seven quarry workers of Marcilly-sur-Vienne, and that the names of the witnesses were published in all the newspapers, but when the local investigator of his ufology group, Mr. Grondeau, put himself in motion, damages were already made, a number of scoffers had intensely made fun of the workers who, upset and sour, had decided not to say a word anymore of their incredible adventure.

Jimmy Guieu says that he can all the same reproduce what "the main witness said objectively" to the newspaper La Nouvelle République for October 4, 1954:

"We managed to question Mr. George Gatey, chief of the building site of a quarry of Marcilly-sur-Vienne, and main witness of the event like his six comrades. We report the impression that these men are sincere and worthy of faith. Their declarations, they confirmed them Friday and Saturday with professional investigators who did not fail, in their turn, to be impressed by the tone of sincerity of the witnesses."

He adds that "Mr. Gatey and his workmen were busy extracting sand and gravel in a quarry at the edge of the road close to Marcilly. Each one was at his workplace, the ones with the mechanical shovel, the others with the hoist. Mr. Gatey was further away, closer to the exit of the quarry. It is he who, the first, saw the machine, an apparatus of circular form surmounted of a dome equipped, apparently, with blades similar to those of a helicopter. The machine was in motionless flight one meter above the ground, the "blades" turning very fast. It did not land on the ground.

A being of small size, 1.50 meters approximately, capped of a helmet in the shape of a bell in opaque matter resembling scrambled glass and which went down to the shoulders, dressed of an outfit of neutral color, fitted with short boots, was beside the apparatus. It held in the hand a kind of large revolver or instrument whose end in the shape of a gun or pipe made it resemble a weapon. On its chest, it showed a very shining disc, projecting an intense beam of light.

Nobody, in the quarry several meters below compared to the road and the surrounding ground, had seen the craft arriving nor heardd it - the machines under operation made a lot of noise.

He indicates that Mr. Gatey is formal: the machine remained at least 30 seconds, a largely sufficient time for him to examine it. As he was an excellent draughtsman his first reflex after his amazement was to run to the tent to take a paper, a pencil and to sketch the strange apparatus and its pilot.

Jimmy Guieu quotes "But I was ahrdly able to stand, Mr. Gatey acknowledged, and I could not take a step, nailed on the ground by the effects of the ray emitted by 'the man'."

Mr. Gatey was at this time at about fifteen meters of the craft and two meters downwards, seeing it from below. The apparatus was at the entry of the quarry on the edge of the excavation, within three meters of the road. On this road, a truck was coming to take a loading, it was driven by Mr. Amirault, who saw the amazed quarrymen looking towards the entry of the building site. Mr. Amirault followed their glances and saw "something greyish which was not there usually � rise in the air."

"The man" went up in his machine, Gatey said, "I was unable to say by where, then the apparatus took height, vertically, by jerks, while whistling like the jet engines the fighter planes. At about 200 meters of altitude, it emitted a fog which hid it completely and disappeared form our sight."

Gatey drew from memory the spacecraft and its occupant, and all the witnesses confirmed that this sketch was in conformity to what they had seen.

The apparatus, of gray color, measured 4.50 meters in diameter approximately, by 2 meters in height at its axis, and owing to the fact that it reached a maximum of one meter from the ground, no trace was discovered.

September 30 [, 1954]

[... Other cases...]

04:30 p.m.: Marcilly-sur-Vienne (13 km INS in the SE of l'Ile-Bouchard--Indre-et-Loire): domed disc on the ground 4,50 m diameter + being

[... Other cases...]

September 30, 1954:

Marcilly-sur-Vienne (13 km ISL to the SE.of L'Ile-Bouchard--Indre-et-Loire): George Gaatey, chief of a construction site of a quarry, and his 6 workers + M. Amiraut, truck driver (disk with bulging cockpit, diametee4,50 m + 1 "humanoid" 1,50 m tall, with a helmet)

The author notes that the Gatay observation lasted half a minute and was done at 15 meters.

Michel Carrouges indicates that in the Leboeuf case the precise details provided on the topography of the places and the respective localisation of the witnesses and the objects or the pilots enforced the extreme closeness of the encounter.

Among other cases of this kind (8) [disappearances on the spot], Vallée cites that which occurred in France on September 30, 1954, in Nouâtre (Indre et Loire). Mr. Georges Gatay, foreman on a construction site, had moved away from his mason workers around 4:30 p.m. when he felt overcome by a strange torpor. Suddenly he saw, less than 10 m away, a shiny dome-shaped object which was floating about 1 m above the ground. In front of it stood a strangely dressed "man", his face covered by a helmet resembling opaque glass. This being disappeared brutally, "like an image which one erases", without the witness, who had not taken his eyes off it, having seen it move... The UFO then rose with a hiss before disappearing into a kind of blue mist. Throughout the sighting, Mr. Gatay had felt unable to move. He suffered from insomnia and headaches for a week. His workers had also seen the craft and the humanoid.

8. Jacques Vallée, Chroniques des apparitions extraterrestres, éd. J'ai lu, 1974, pp. 103-107.

The authors note that on September 30, 1954, eight construction workers near Marcilly-sur-Vienne, France, saw a disc-shaped object on the ground and a small man-shaped being wearing a helmet standing nearby.

165) September 30, 1954, 04:30 p.m., Marcilly-sur-Vienne (France):

Georges Gatay and seven construction workers saw a disk at ground level, with a humanoid standing close by. Both vanished in a very strange manner. Physiological effects in all witnesses. (Ici Paris, 11 Oct. 1954; France-Soir, 3 Oct. 1954) (25; Magonia)

The author indicates that on September 30, 1954, close to Marcilly-sur-Vienne n the Indre-et-Loire department, eight construction workers saw a disc on the ground, with a small humanoid carrying a helmet close to it.

The authors cite a case in Anrica in 1965 in which, they say, a creature being chased by witnesses "suddenly disappeared on the spot". They continue:

Did it make itself invisible? If so, it wasn't the only one. Similar phenomena occurred on 30/09/1954 in Marcilly sur Vienne, on 26/10/1954 in Alleyrat (Creuse ), [... other cases...] The only solution would be to be able to get our hands on one of these famous outfits with multiple possibilities. And then, we must take into account the tendency that witnesses have to embroid it. One specific example is needed, but we could cite a thousand!

We also noted the fact that sometimes the transparency of the helmet was quite imperfect (fuzziness noted by Mr. Gatey on 09/30/1954 in Marcilly sur Vienne and by Mrs. Leboeuf on 09/26/1954 in Chabeuil). We put it down to a reflection or a particular form of material that could be perfectly transparent on the inside and semi-opaque on the outside. Such material also exist in our own technology. Then we closed the case. At first glance, we had solved the problem, but one day one of us had this thought: "What if their vision was different from ours?".

After his counter-investigation in 1971 in Bressuire which revealed that the "witness" there had invented everything, ufologist René Pacaut took advantage to to go not far in Marcilly-sur-Vienne where at the same time a similar story to that of the Bressuire prankster occurred.

Rene Pacaut reminds of the alleged facts: in October of 1954, George G..., construction site foreman, was busy extracting sand with six workmen at the edge of a road when, one one meter above the ground, "an apparatus of circular shape, topped of a dome equipped with blades similar to those of an helicopter" appeared. The machine was motionless at the entry of the career and a "Martian of small size", capped of a helmet in the shape of a bell, dressed in a combination, fitted with short boots "came out of there, armed with a kind of large revolver. On his chest, he carries a disc projecting an intense light which paralysed the foreman.

Under the eyes of the terrorized workers, the UFO "hovers" thirty seconds there, then the "Martian" goes up on board and the apparatus takes altitude again while whistling and emitting a thick fog which dissimulates it to the witnesses...

Rene Pacaut comments that this observation, reported by the newspapers of the time and rehashed by specialized writers, seemed to him all the more interesting because it referred to a machine of an original type: he had never heard speak about a UFO with helicopter blades before! In addition, it was specified that the first reflex of the site foreman had been to leap to his tent to make a sketch of the apparatus and the pilot.

Arrived at Marcilly, he beats the countryside to find the carriers and their chief. But all his efforts remained vain: they had left the area several years ago. He then interrogated the inhabitants who had known them and to whom they had told their story, and he found enough people who had known them. All without exception had the same reaction when he told them of the affair in the career: they burst to laughters.

Believing that they were just scoffing, Pacaut decided to push his investigation further. But everywhere, het obtained the same explanation: the story had been invented by the merry team of workers, at the instigation of their foreman who, to make it plausible, had finicked all the details.

Pacaut asked why these false witnesses had persevered such a long time in their testimonys. It was answered to him that it was because they had ended up being trapped with their own game, and thes did not dare anymore to reconsider their first declarations.

Pacaut considers that their mystification could be inspired by the prank in Bressuire just a day before and not far from there. He notices that in spite of the results of his counter-investigations, "certain keen soucoupists persist in" regarding these two observations as authentic, since, according to them, the witnesses exceeded by the remarks of the scoffers just decided to say that it was a hoax, to have their peace.

In a list of cases that the magazine called for investigation or re-investigation, there was:

In the ufology magazine LDLN, ufologist Fernand Lagarde published a list of French cases of 1954 which should be investigated or re-investigated; the case "165 09/30/54 Marcilly-sur-Vienne" is part of this list.

Nr	DATE	LOCATION TERRITORIAL DIV., COUNTRY OR NATION	WITNESSES	TYPES	SOURCES
43	09/30/54	Marcilly-sur-Vienne, I.-et-L., Fr	Gatey +	8.V2	6,123/16.93/C165

339. 30 September 1954 1630 MARCILLY-SUR-VIENNE (FRANCE)

Georges Gatay, head of a team of construction workers, felt drowsy, and found himself paralysed facing, less than 10m away, a man wearing coveralls, with an opaque glass helmet on his head, and short boots. The man had "a light projector" on his chest and had an elongated object in his hand. The man was standing in front of a large shining dome, hovering at less than 1m altitude, on the top of which were objects like rotating blades. The man disappeared "like an image one erases suddenly", the machine rising vertically by a jerking motion before it too disappeared in a blue haze. Gatay suffered various physical and psychological after effects. The other seven workers, Beurrois, Lubanovic, Sachet, Villeneuve, Rougier and Amiraut, confirmed that they had seen the object and being, and felt the paralysis.

(M165; Ici Paris, 11 October 1954; France-Soir, 3 October 1954; Magonia, 63)

In a part of their book following the case files they treat, the authors, after having announced that they are ready to learn from witnesses the existence of new cases, explain to the readers why certain known cases are not in their book. Among them, the Marcilly sighting, for which they specify what applies to others:

"A hoax also, that landing of Marcilly-sur-Vienne (the Indre-et-Loire) on September 30, 1954 with its "Martian" in "Flash Gordon" style: the "witness" Georges Gatay admitted afterwards that he had invented the entire story."

French ufologist Michel Figuet found out that Paris-Match confirmed the case as a hoax.

The case was narrated by ufologist Jacques Vallée in an article for the ufology magazine "Lumières dans la Nuit," he tells that at Nouatre, Indre-et-Loire, France, at a construction site on September 30, 1954 at 04:30 P.M., George Gatay, who was foreman of an eight-man construction crew, was unexpectedly drawn away from his crew, feeling a sense of "peculiar drowsiness."

He felt himself walking without knowing to where or why. At a short distance from his construction Gatay encountered a man standing on a slope at some 30 feet from him. The man was wearing an opaque glass helmet with a large visor and wearing gray coveralls and short boots. He held an object in his hand, which Gatay described as a weapon of some kind, with the shape of a rod. There was a kind of electronic instrument display on his chest. The strange looking man was standing in front of a dome-shaped object, which hovered about 3 feet above the ground.

The craft had a cupola with blade-like devices above it. Gatay, enthralled with the sight of the man and his craft, was frozen in his tracks. He stated:

Gatay tried to run away when he first saw the being and object, but was "paralyzed" during the sighting. His seven co-workers were also in a sort of a daze during the incident. All eight of the men were "non-believers" before their strange incident.

As soon as Gatay was released from his paralysis, he ran back to the other workers, and shouted, "Have you seen something?" One of them, Mr. Beurrois, exclaimed, "Yes, a flying saucer!" Another of the men, excavator driver Mr. Lubanovic added, "There was a man dressed like a diver in front of it." The other workers all added their confirmation to the strange event.

Vallée says that Gatay was a well-known and respected man who had fought in the war with the French Resistance, and was wounded in Luxembourg. After the sighting, he began to suffer from insomnia, strong headaches, and a loss of appetite. These symptoms lasted about a week. Even after this strange sighting, the men collectively believed that they had been witnesses to some type of experimental craft, probably from France itself. This explanation was not considered possible given the details of the hovering of the craft, and the actual vanishing of the craft in front of the men.

Vallée wonders if the saucer was an otherwordly craft, and if the being, was living being or a remote-controlled robot. He said that no reasonable explanation has been given to answer these questions, and that the case is still listed as unexplained.

He feels sorry that their strange sighting which he says has never been debunked, has not been given much credibility by US ufologists, but that "serious investigators" which he does not name have "embraced it as genuine."

In his chapter on the cases of paralysis or drousiness of UFO witnesses during their experience, Pierre Delval indicates 12 cases from the French flap of 1954, among those, that in Marcilly-sur-Vienne in the department of the Indre-et-Loire, on September 30, 1954 at 10:30 p.m.

Georges Gatey, construction site foreman, had just left his workmen when suddenly he is felt "weird", invaded by a kind of torpor.

He even wondered where he was going to. At this point in time he discovered within ten meters of him a small man in a diving-suit, upright close to a strange craft floating one meter above the ground. As soon as he saw that, he realized that he was in total impossibility to move, and remained like nailed to the ground during all the duration of the sighting.

He noted that the "diver" held a rather long tube in a hand, comparable to a revolver or a metal bar.

The being wore a disc on the chest, which projected an intense ray of light. Without Gatay being able to see how, the being disappeared and the craft flew away with great noise.

Workmen Beurrois, Lubanovic, Sechet, Villeneuve, Rougier, Amirault, as well as a truck driver were present, witnessed the display and were also "paralysed."

38. Encounter at Marcilly-sur-Vienne (Indre et Loire), September 30: Angers La Courier de l'Ouest, October 19; Radar Magazine, October 17; Jacques Vallee, op, cit., pp. 68-69.

Defending a theory according to which UFOs are not "extraterrestrial" but "parapsychological", Pierre Viéroudy argues that their characteristics of "shapes" are "absurd" and their materiality questionable. He cites among the examples he gives:

- The case of Nouâtre (Indre et Loire) (17)

On September 30, 1954, around 4:30 p.m., G.G. foreman mason suddenly found himself in front of a strange creature. On an embankment ten meters from him was a "man" wearing an opaque glass helmet and wearing a gray jumpsuit with a projector on his chest. Behind the being floated a shining dome on the dome of which some sort of blades rotated. Suddenly the "man" disappeared without the witness having taken his eyes off him, like an image that is erased in one stroke; the saucer then rose in successive leaps and then disappeared in a sort of blue haze as if by a miracle. Four other workers attended the apparition and confirmed the details of the scene.

NOUATRE (Indre et Loire), 9/30/1954: D2 (or D6?) and Hl

This case is the only one where both a UFO and a humanoid disappeared on the spot. Around 4:30 p.m., Mr. Georges Gatay, foreman on a construction site, had moved away from his mason workers when he felt overcome by a strange torpor. He suddenly saw, less than 10 m away, a shiny dome-shaped object which was floating about 1 m above the ground. In front of this object stood a strangely dressed "man", his face covered with an opaque helmet. This being suddenly disappeared, "like an image that is erased in one go", without the witness, who had not taken his eyes off him, having seen him move. The UFO then rose with a whistle, then faded into a kind of blue haze. Throughout the observation, Mr. Gatay was unable to move, and he suffered from headaches and insomnia for a week. His workers had also seen the craft and the humanoid, and were also paralyzed (13).

Jacques Vallée, Chroniques des Apparitions extraterrestres, éd. Denoël, 1972, pp. 109 - 111, éd. J'ai lu, 1974 pp. 103 - 105.

"D2" is defined in the article as: "instantaneous disappearance of a UFO which is not a mere nocturnal light ("one moment the object was there, and the next moment it was not there anymore")."

"D6" is defined in the article as: "fading, an image that becomes increasingly blurred and blends into the sky."

"H1" is defined in the article: "instantaneous appearance or disappearance outside" of a humanoid.

1 30091954 4:30 p.m. Nouatre near Marcilly-sur-Vienne 37800 B4.

WITNESSES. Mr. Georges Gatay (construction site manager); MM. Beurrois, Lubanovic, Sechet, Villeneuve, Rougier, Amirault and a truck driver XX.

OBSERVATIONS.

a) A shiny object that "floated". Its shape was that of a cupola with, on the latter, objects in the form of wings or rotating blades. (See La Londe Forest on 11/13/1960.)

b) A small man whose head was covered with a helmet made of opaque glass and fitted with a visor that came down to his chest. He wore a gray jumpsuit and little boots. He held in his hand a rather long object "that one could have taken for a revolver or perhaps for a metal bar". On his chest like a small spotlight was seen.

PROGRESS. Mr. Georges Gatay, foreman, in charge of a team of eight masons, separates from his workers. He feels "all" invaded by a certain torpor, and suddenly wonders where he is going. Suddenly, he finds himself facing a small being in front of a craft in the shape of a shiny cupola. As soon as he sees the craft and the being, Georges Gatay tries to run, but he finds himself nailed to the ground. He is like "paralyzed" and all his workers are too. The being disappears on the spot and the craft takes off with a loud whistling sound that covers the noise made by the excavators. It rises in successive leaps, straight ahead, then disappears in a kind of blue mist, as if by a miracle.

All the workers saw the scene, and Mr. Lubanovic added: "There was a man dressed like a diver."

NOTE. The defensive object the being was holding. (See Quarouble on 09/10/1954, Menton, in the spring of 1954, La Roche-en-Brenil on 11/5/1954, Saint-Rémy on 10/20/1954, etc.).

EFFECTS. The paralysis of the witnesses caused by the metal bar that the being held or by the luminous disc that the being wore on the chest and which projected an intense beam of light, or by the presence of the craft?

After the incident, the main witness suffered from insomnia, headaches and lost his appetite for eight days.

SOURCES. Vallée Catalog, case n° 165. - Michel Carrouges: Les apparitions de Martiens, p. 123 to 125. - Jimmy Guieu: Black out sur les S. V., p. 161-162. - Ici Paris, 10/11/1954. - France-Soir, 10/3/1954.

64-34 Sept. 30. 1954 1630 Marcllly-sur-Vienne, France Type C

Georges Gatay, a construction worker, encountered a man wearing gray coveralls, whose head was covered with an opaque helmet coming down to his chest, on which was light projector. In his hand was rod-like object. Behind the man was a large shining dome hovering 3 ft above the ground; above its cupola were rotating blades. The man suddenly vanished, end the saucer rose jerkily with a whistle, then disappeared in a blue haze. During the experience G. felt paralyzed. So did his 7 co-workers, who had seen the same thing. G. suffered from headaches & insomnia for a week.

Investigator:

Source: Vallee, Magonia, pp. 68f.

Sept. 30, 1954 1630 Marcilly-sur-Vienne (Vienne), France

The witnesses were working in a quarry (gravel-pit.) The beam of light from the disc on the UFOnaut's chest was responsible for Gatay's paralysis.

Add Source: J. Guieu, black Out, pp. 141f.

French ufologist Jean-François Gilles had established a computerized catalogue of landings on the French territory between September 26 and October 18, 1954 in order to study if their geographical distribution were the fact of the chance or not.

UFO LANDINGS ON THE CONTINENTAL TERRITORY OF FRANCE FROM SEPTEMBER 26, 1954 TO OCTOBER 18, 1954
	ICOD	Désignation	(57)	Date	JV4	jve1	COMMENTS
0011	0590	NOUATRE	RF37	540930	165	167	CE3

ICOD is an internal code of this listing. (57) refers to column 57 of the Condon group's computerized UFOCAT, where RF is France and the number is the département. JV4 and jve1 are case numbers in Jacque Vallée's Magonia listing and "Passport to Magonia" book. CE2, CE3 refers to the Hynek classification.

	V	F	G
ICOD	Longitude	Latitude	Longitude	Latitude	Longitude	Latitude
0590	-0.537	47.047	-0.536	47.049	-0.549	47.052

V,F,G are codes for people who determined the coordinates: V = Jacques Vallée, ufologistF = Jean Charles Fumoux, officer of the French Air Force, G = Jean François Gille, ufologist.

Jacques Vallée indicates that among the cases that deserve close examination, but "which were swept under the rug by UFO believers themselves", is the sighting at Nouatre, France, on September 30, 1954, at about 4:30 p.m. when Georges Gatay, head of a team of eight construction workers, found himself walking away from the others. He felt a "peculiar drowsiness" and suddenly wondered where he was going. Then, without warning, he faced the strangest apparition: less than thirty feet away, above him on the slope, was a man. His head was covered by an opaque glass helmet with a visor coming down to his chest. He wore gray coveralls and short boots. In his hand he held an elongated object: "It could have been a pistol, or it could have been a metal rod." On his chest was a light projector. The strange man was standing in front of a large shining dome, which "floated" about three feet above the ground. Above the cupola of the machine were objects like rotating wings or blades. Then,

Gatay tried to run, but he found himself helplessly nailed to the spot. He was thus "paralyzed" during the whole observation. So were his seven coworkers, in a unique case of collective physiological reaction. None of them had previously believed in the reality of the so-called saucers. As soon as he was able to move again, Gatay rushed back to his men and cried, "Have you seen something?"

Mr. Bourrois told him: "Yes-a flying saucer!" And the man who was the driver of the excavator, Mr. Lubanovic, added: "'I'1here was a man dressed like a diver in front of it." Four others� Messrs, Sechet, Villeneuve, Rougier, and Amiraut, a truck driver confirmed the details of the sighting.

It must be pointed out that the incident took place in a remote rural region. At the time the wave of French reports was just beginning. But Gatay, who fought during the war with the Resistance and was wounded in Luxembourg, stated that he was not used to flights of fancy. Following the incident, he suffered from insomnia, strong headaches, and loss of appetite for a week. Ironi-cally, the eight men are still not convinced that the flying saucers were alien. They feel sure they are a secret development by a terrestrial nation-probably France.

DATE	PLACE	CREDIBILITY SOURCES
09/30/1954	Marcilly sur Vienne	hoax confirmed in Paris-Match at the time. See the report in "OVNIS" p. 96-97.

UFO Vanishes in France

This case was originally brought to light by renown researcher Jacques Vallee, and it is a strange one indeed. Occurring at Nouatre, Indre-et-Loire, France in 1954, it is a case unlike any other, and yet all of the witnesses to the event are considered trustworthy, and their strange sighting has never been debunked. American ufology students have treated this case with little credibility, but serious investigators have embraced it as genuine. It began at a construction site at 4:30 P.M. on September 30, 1954.

George Gatay, who was foreman of an eight-man construction crew, was unexpectedly drawn away from his crew, feeling a sense of "peculiar drowsiness." He was walking, but did not know why or to where. A short distance from his construction site, Gatay was amazed to encounter a man standing on a slope, some 30 feet from him. The "man" was wearing an opaque glass helmet with a large visor. He was wearing gray coveralls, and short boots. He also held an object in his hand, which Gatay described as a weapon of some kind, like a rod. There was a kind of electronic instrument display on his chest. This strange looking man was standing in front of a dome-shaped object, which hovered about 3 feet above the ground.

The craft had a cupola with blade-like devices above it. Gatay, enthralled with the sight of the man and his craft, was frozen in his tracks.

Gatay stated: "Suddenly, the strange man vanished, and I couldn't explain how he did it, since he did not disappear from my field of vision by walking away, but vanished like an image one erases. Then I heard a strong whistling sound which drowned the noise of our excavators. Soon the object rose by successive jerks, in a vertical direction, and then it too was erased in a sort of blue haze, as if by a miracle."

Gatay had tried to run after first seeing the being and object, but was "paralyzed" during the sighting. Strangely, his seven co-workers were also in a sort of a daze during the incident. All eight of the men were "non-believers" before their strange incident.

As soon as Gatay was released from his strange encounter, he ran back to the other workers, and cried, "Have you seen something?" One of the men, Mr. Beurrois, exclaimed, "Yes--A flying saucer!"

Another of the men, excavator driver Mr. Lubanovic added, "There was a man dressed like a diver in front of it." The other workers all added their confirmation to the strange event.

Gatay was a well-known and respected man who had fought in the war with the French Resistance, and was wounded in Luxembourg. After the sighting, he began to suffer from insomnia, strong headaches, and a loss of appetite. These symptoms lasted about a week. Even after this strange sighting, the men collectively believed that they had been witnesses to some type of experimental craft, probably from France itself. This explanation was not feasible given the details of the hovering of the craft, and the actual vanishing of the craft in front of the men. What was this other-wordly craft seen by these men? And the being, was it a living entity, or a remotely controlled robot of some type? To this day, no reasonable explanation has been given to answer these questions, and this case is still listed as unexplained.

sources:

Article: Jacques Vallée, dans le magazine d'ufologie Lumières Dans la Nuit (LDLN), France, N.43.

"Passport to Magonia - Section, "100 Years of UFO Landings."

"Chronique des apparitions extra-terrestres", Jacques Vallée, Denoel éditeur, France, page 261, 1972.

Article in the newspaper "France-Soir", 3 October 1954.

Nr of the J. C. Fumoux list	Ne of the Francat list	Localization	Date	Class	Credibility	Sources	Number of W
011	89	Nouatre Marcilly-sur-Vienne	09/09	CE3	E [="Explained"] hoax	2-p 96 Paris Match	8 W

A front page story.

October 3rd. London's Sunday Dispatch.

So much was happening in France the English press was forced to take note. Actually the story was too big. The London Sunday Dispatch could only print a summary on its front page. With the situation unclear, errors and the lack of detail was inevitable in the reporting. The Dispatch informed its readers:

"Near Grenoble farmer Joseph Habrat saw a luminous engine moving at great speed.

"His daughter, Yvette, said it came to within 600 yards with a gentle snoring sound.

"A little later two thousand people saw a dozen of them 'dancing a ballet' in the sky.

"Two people at Rixheim, near Mulhouse, watched a cigar-shaped luminous engine surrounded by twelve smaller satellite cigars.

"Three holiday-makers on Carry-le-Rouet beach saw a half-cigar over the port. Three women who saw it described it as leaving a trail of smoke.

"A flying mushroom was reported by a lorry-driver and his friend at Faremontiers. It was in a field and had three tripod-like legs.

"'I tried to approach it,' he said, 'but about four hundred feet away I was stopped by a ray. I felt little prickings. My head swam. I had a cold sweat. I could not move.'

"The mushroom then rose slowly and flew off.

"Dr. Martinet, skin disease specialist at Chambery, watched a flying saucer manoeuvring in the sky for four minutes.

"In the gulf of Gascony the mate and two seamen of a cargo boat saw a moving disc with a greenish glow.

"Actress Michele Morgan saw a luminous disc over the Invalides air terminal in Paris.

"There have been three reports of men from another planet landing in France.

"At Vienne a farmer said the visitor, who wore a kind of diving suit, caressed his arm.

"A woman at Drome saw a being about the size of a child and with a human face. He seemed to be wrapped in a transparent sack.'

"Both visitors to France returned to their saucers and took off vertically.

"A little helmeted and booted man with a revolver firing 'luminous and paralysing rays' was seen by the foreman of a quarry at Marcilly-sur-Vienne and six of his workmen.

"A whistling sound drew the attention of two men at Blanzy to a cigar-shaped machine in a freshly ploughed field.

"The men said the machine was about six feet in length. The pointed tip was yellow, the rest of the cigar brown.

"As they approached the machine it rose vertically.

"A policeman, a grocer, and eight other people saw an incandescent 'cigar' at Agen.

"A brilliant ball appeared to a stallkeeper at Belesta. He said it left a trail of grey smoke as it shot through the sky."

The author of the aforementioned account noted that at the same time that day (October 3, 1954) 40 miles away an amazing "sky display" was taking place above a wooded area near the village of Marcoign, France, before 20 witnesses. That so many people at the same moment at different locations should have a similar hallucination boggled the writer's mind, so much so he consulted a psychiatrist assigned to the Law Courts of the Seine, a Dr. Gouriou.

"Is mass "delusion upon this scale possible?"

The above question was put to the mental health expert who replied he had never known a flying saucer to play a role in any of his patient's hallucinations, and that hallucinations were usually sounds rather than visual images. Moreover, when on rare occasions visual disorders did occur, such problems were nearly always due to toxemia or cerebral lesions which would certainly help to rule out the possibility of a "mass visual delusion." 24.

Dr. Gouriou then wisely ended the interview with: "...I for one think that those who maintain that they have seen saucers do so in good faith, unless of course they are trying to hoax us. But we must never forget that whatever a normal human being sees, he, to a considerable extent interprets, and this fact alone renders all human evidence fallible." 25.

"UFO helicopter?"

One press report was so unbelievable even UFO researcher Aime Michel had doubts it should be republished. Years later, when discussing the 1954 French wave with fellow French UFO researcher Jacques Vallee, Michel expressed his opinion that if such a report sawthe light of day in a UFO book scientists would be convinced people who reported UFOs were mental cases. Vallee, however, was deeply fasinated with the report for his own reasons.

Briefly, according to sources available, at about 4:30p.m. on September 30, 1954 at Nouatre, France, a group of quarry workers were w1tnesses to an amazing encounter. The work party foreman, George [sic] Gatey, did most of the talking when the story was related to authorities. Gatey sa1d he was first aware of something strange when a torpor came over him. Immediately thereafter he became aware of a dome-shaped machine about four feet in diameter a short distance away. The "ship" was not resting on the ground, instead it was suspended in the air just a few feet above the rocky surface of the quarry. On the top of the dome was a mechanism similar to the blades of a helicopter.

Next to the ship was its supposed pilot, a "little man" somewhat less than four feet tall dressed in a gray, one piece suit and low-topped boots. On the being's head was a opaque glass helmet. What M. Gatey believed was a "light projector" was on the saucer pilot's chest.

Mr. Gatey said his feelings of drowsiness turned into a paralyzed condition, thwarting any attempt to flee. The saucer pilot had some kind of elongated device in his hand which Gatey assumed was either a weapon or just a metal rod.

The other workers were supposed to have seen the whole encounter. A M. Beurrois confirmed the story, saying that the machine must have been a flying saucer. Another worker, M. Lubonovis, also testified on Gatey's behalf, swearing that a "man in a diver's suit" had confronted his boss.

Backing up both Gatey and Lubonovis were the rest of the work crew: Messrs. Villeneuve, Rougier, Sechet, and Amirant. 156.

Vallee's theory.

Jacques Vallee's attention was drawn to the final moments of the saucer incident as described by Gatey. The pilot, said Gatey, suddenly vanished. The creature didn't leave the area by any ordinary means. He just disappeared as if he was "erased." The fate of the ship was similar. The cupola-topped machine emitted a whistle and took off, gaining altitude in a series of jerks. While in view the ship also vanished suddenly, an abrupt vanishment in a blue haze. Just like a miracle, remarked Gatey! 157.

The forementioned story was outlandish but it helped to lay the groundwork for Vallee's book: Dimensions/The Alien Chronicles.

"Man from planet X?"

Unfortunately the aftermath of Gatey's report as carried in the Paris Match did not gain the circulation it deserved. As French UFO researcher Michel Figuet points out, the incident had caused such a local sensation the quarry workers found themselves being questioned by a judge.

Gatey and the others admitted that the spaceman/saucer story was a joke. 158.

An American might wonder if the Frenchmen were inspired by Hollywood again. Besides Paramount's War of the Worlds, another Yankee film doing the rounds was United Artist's Man From Planet X that had been released in 1952. There are some similarities between the film and Gatey's joke.

The sources are given as: "156: Vallee, Jacques. Passport to Magonia. ppl 68-69." 157: "Ibid." and "158: Figuet, Michel and Jean-Louis Ruchon, OVNI: le Premier Dossier Complet des Rencontres Rapprochees en France. pp 656-657".

The authors indicate that on September 30, 1954, in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, France, eight construction workers reported seeing a disc-shaped object sitting on the ground. Standing nearby they saw a small hu�manoid wearing a helmet.

1954/09/30 FRANCE, MARCILLY-SUR-VIENNE

Source: Official UFO, Feb. 76

A construction worker and seven co-workers were paralyzed when near a disk-shaped object. One being was seen holding a rod-like device and wearing a light projector on his chest. The worker suffered insomnia, strong headaches, and loss of appetite for a week after the incident.

EFFECTS:
Paralysis
Insomnia
Appetite loss

Jean Sider indicates that the case of September 30, 1954, at 04:30 p.m. in Nouatre, Marcilly-sur-Vienne, Indre-et-Loire, has for witnesses Georges Gatey, René Rougier, André Beurrois, Andre Séché, Georges Lubanovic and Maurice Dubroca, Villeneuve and Amirault, working for the company Albert Cochery, of Joué-les-Tours.

Georges Gatey, the quarry foreman, felt overwhelmed by a torpor and disoriented. Suddenly, he saw a small being of 1.50 meters and a craft in the shape of a shiny dome that "floated", on the dome of which were rotating blades, of the helicopter type according to one of the sources.

The being had an opaque plastic visor helmet and was dressed in a gray suit, like a diver, according to Mr. Lubanovic.

Then all the witnesses felt paralyzed. The being disappeared on the spot and the craft took off with a loud whistling sound, and disappeared into a blue haze.

Jean Sider indicates that the source is Figuet, p. 96; And the Alain Gamard file for the names of all the witnesses.

He notes that Figuet, in LDLN 249-250, said that it was a "hoax confirmed in Paris-Match at the time", but that he checked all issues of this magazine for 1954 and that there is no mention of this.

He pointed out that a local investigation published in La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest on 4 October 1954 had established the good faith of the witnesses, but that the reporter stated that, as a result of the mockery they were subjected to, they are increasingly reluctant to answer questions.

He indicates that this is confirmed by Courier de l'Ouest for October 19, p. 9: "It is no longer reticence, it is complete silence." Corroboration of this situation is given by an investigation probably made at the beginning of 1955 by the Ouranos group, in the person of Mr. Grondeau, who learned that some investigators had ridiculed the witnesses, and claimed that they were drunk.

He indicates that one finds besides trace of this journalistic allergy in L'Echo de Touraine for October 15, on page 2, saying "It was a prank after drinking".

Mr. Grondeau could not find any of the eight witnesses, who were already "absent" a few weeks or months after the incident. But he was able to meet the son of one of them, who remained anonymous, and told him: "To get rid of the police my father said he saw a cloud of smoke rise in the sky".

Jean Sider thinks that it is probably this version, not counting those of the journalists, that largely contributed to devalue the case, not to mention the rumors of prison for contempt of magistrate which ran against one only of the witnesses.

In the 1970s, in "Les Extraterrestres", published by A. Lefeuvre, 1978, p 179, René Pacaud was unable to locate a single one of the eight quarry men in the 1970s, and that he found that the version of the hoax was permanently anchored in the local collective memory.

Alain Gamard, shortly after René Pacaud, despite extensive research documented in a file that he as photocopies to Jean Sider, could not find a witness either.

Jean Sider concludes that even if one wants to convince oneself that the fallacious negative elements of this affair can rehabilitate the authenticity of this CE3, there will always be a doubt in the mind, "the ravages committed by idiots being irreparable."

The Belgian ufologist indicates that in 1954, on September 30, in France, in Marcilly sur Vienne "16:30 - George Gatay and seven construction workmen saw a disc on the level of the ground as well as a humanoid which stood near it. Both disappeared in a very strange manner. Physiological effects on all the witnesses ".

The sources are noted: "Ici-Pais, 11 Oct. 1954; France-Soir, 3 Oct. 1954" avec un remerciement à Wim van Utrecht.

She indicates that another version is: "At 16:30 George Gatay and 7 construction workmen saw a disc on the level of the ground as a a humanoid wich stood near it. Physiological effects on all the witnesses."

She indicates that the source is "Jacques Vallée: 'Chronique des apparitions ET' - DENOEL 1972 - COLL. J'AI LU - p. 262".

And that there is still another version "by the SAME AUTHOR: Suddenly the strange man disappeared, I cannot explained how, for I did not see it moving whereas I had not left it from my eyes. He disappeared as an image which one erases in a blow."

She indicates that the source is "Jacques VALLEE: 'Autres dimensions' - trad. Robert Laffont 1989 - p. 111, 112".

There is still this other version: "This machine does have the classical shape of a saucer: it is circular and surmounted by a dome; the abnormal fact is that this dome is equipped apparently with 'blades similar to those of a helicopter and which rotate fast'. (...) Just beside the machine, the witness sees the pilot. The latter is down on the ground. It appears of small size: 1m50 or 55. It is capped 'with a helmet whose matter resembles scrambled glass, dressed of an outfit of neutral color, with little boots at the feet'. This appearance lasts only a few moments, then the pilot goes up on board. At once the machine rises vertically, by jerks and while whistling like 'jet planes'."

She indicates that the source is "Michel Carrouges : 'Les Apparitions de Martiens', éd. Fayard 1963, p. 123-124".

She indicates that actually: "it is a hoax by the journalistic reporter Nouatre. Larry Hatch, Dec. 2003 ".

Case #014: 30/09/1954, p. 96 (Marcilly-sur-Vienne)

In a table, Fabrice Bonvin notes selected cases of the 1954 Frnech flap, including this one:

The author indicates that on Thursday, September 30, 1954, appeared "one of the finest observations of this year 1954"; which will defray the chronicle with an enormous number of newspapers and articles of all kinds speaking of the "famous" observation of Marcilly-Sur-Vienne, in the south-west of the department.

He assures that "We are going to relive the adventure described by the witnesses of the time, in order to put an end once and for all to the rumors of hoax circulated about this case, and to satisfy the curiosity of the people having vaguely expected to talk about this adventure worthy of a science fiction novel."

He indicates that several workers are busy in a sand and pebbles quarry on the edge of the departmental road, on the left bank of the Vienne, between Parcay and Marcilly in front of the military camp of Nouâtres, camp of Ruchard, Thursday, 30 September at 4:30 p.m., when they saw a circular "craft" and his passenger land on the edges of the excavation. He quotes the site chief George Gatey, former resistant during World War II, wounded in Luxembourg, as saying:

(Sketch by Mr Gatey of the saucer and its passenger, published in the "NR" of 10/4/1954)

The author of the website says that the six workmates confirmed entirely the statements of their site supervisor and added that "The craft was gray in color and emitted a continuous whistling sound and the scene lasted about 30 seconds."

The names of the witnesses are given as René Rougier, André Berrois, André Seche, George Lubanowich, Maurice Dubroca and Mr. Amirault, truck driver.

The author says that after the incident, Gatey reportedly suffered from insomnia, severe headaches and lost his appetite for a week and that the eight men would not however be convinced that the flying saucers come from another worls. On the contrary, they are part of the secret experiences of a very terrestrial nation, probably France.

He asserts that "this incredible adventure that happened to our workers was long denigrated as a simple hoax of the time," but that a more serious investigation by Jean Sider made it possible to demonstrate that this story was not a hoax. If anything has happened in this career, other explanations may be contemplated, in particular, Mr. Renaud Leclet's interesting theory of a possible confusion with an army helicopter (see appendix 02)."

The sources are given as "Nouvelle république du centre-ouest" for 10/02 and 10/04/1954"; "OVNI le Premier dossier complet des rencontres en France" A. Lefeuvre Publisher 1979 by Michel Figuet & J.L Ruchon P.96"; "Chronique des apparition E.T" J'ai Lu publisher A308 1977 by Jacques Vallée (Case No 165)"; "black-out sur les S.V" Omnium littéraire publisher 1972 by Jimmy Guieu P.161"; "LDLN No 165 P.8"; "'Le Dossier 1954 et l'imposture rationaliste' by Jean Sider, Ramuel Publisher - June 1997 - P174"

Case	Nmbr witnesses	Hours	Type objects
Marcilly-sur-Vienne	8	3	2

Georges Gatay

Former resistant during world war II, wounded in Luxembourg.

September 30, 1954 at 04:30 P.M., in Nouatre (the Indre-and-Loire DEPARTMENT) in a rural area quite isolated, George Gatay, foreman responsible for a team of 8 masons, separates from his workmen. He feels invaded with certain torpor and sudden wonders where he went. And then, suddenly, he is facing the strangest appearance, separated of him with less than some ten meters, a little above him, on the slope, is a man whose head is covered with a helmet made of glass opaque, and equipped with a visor which goes down to his chest. He carries a gray combination and small boots. He holds in the hand an elogated object that one could have taken for a revolver or perhaps a metallic rod. On his chest there is a projector. This strange man is upright in front of a large shining dome, which "floats" at about 90 cm above ground-level. On the cupola of the machine are objects in the shape of wings or blades which rotate. Then:

Suddenly the strange man disappeared, I do not explained myself how, for I did not see him moving whereas I had not left him with my eyes; he disappeared as an image which one erases in one blow. I then heard a kind of whistle, so loud that it covered the noise of our excavators; the saucer rose by successive jumps, vertically, then, too, was erased in a kind of blue fog, as by miracle.

Gatay tries to flee but like is like nailed to the ground. He is "paralysed" during all the scene. His workmen are too. None of them believed in realities of the "saucers" before. As soon as he can move again, Gatay rushes towards his workmen while shouting: Did you see something? Mr. Beurrois answers Yes, a flying saucer! And the man who led the excavator, Mr. Lubanovic, adds: There was a man equipped like a diver. 4 other workmen: Mr Sechet, Villeneuve, Rougier and Amiraut, a truck driver, will confirm all the details of the scene.

After the incident, Gatay suffered from insomnia, strong headaches and lost his appetite during one week. The eight men will however not be convinced that flying saucers come from another world. They are sure on the contrary that they form part of secret experiments of a quite terrestrial nation, probably France.

A man is paralyzed during an encounter

(13/12/2004 Um dos mais not�veis casos da onda de apariç�es ufol�gicas que varreu a França, em 1954, ocorreu na localidade de Nouatre, no mês de setembro. Por volta das 16hs, o senhor Georges Gatay, trabalhador de uma construç�o, sentiu-se estranhamente cansado e resolveu se afastar do grupo de oper�rios.)

12/13/2004 One of the most remarkable cases of the flap of ufologocal appearances which swept France, in 1954, occurred in the locality of Nouatre, in September. At approximately 04:00 P.M., Mr George Gatay, worker on a construction site, felt strangely tired and decided to move away from the group of workmen.

(Sozinho, subitamente se viu frente a frente com um vulto que lembra um homem vestindo uma capa longa e cinzenta, botas escuras e uma viseira, aparentemente feita de vidro opaco, que lhe cobria o rosto.)

Alone, he suddenly saw in front of him, a silhouette which reminded him to that of a man dressed with a long and gray combination, dark boots and a visor, apparently made opaque glass, which covered his face.

(Gatay notou um objeto met�lico em uma das m�os do ser e uma luz que parecia ser projetada de seu peito. Através da figura, flutuava um grande e brilhante objeto, cujo formato lembrava um osso. De repente, o homem misterioso desapareceu. O objeto, ent�o, subiu verticalmente e também desapareceu.)

Gatay noticed a metallic object in one of the hands of the being and a light which seemed to be projected from his chest. Through the character, a large and shiny object floated, whose shape reminded of a bone. Suddenly, the mysterious man disappeared. The object, then, went up vertically and also disappeared.

(Gatay relatou que permanecera paralisado durante toda a apariç�o e um pouco depois do desaparecimento do ser e do �VNI. Voltando à construç�o, ele ficou surpreso quando seu colegas lhe contaram que também tinham sofrido uma singular paralisia, estando todos muito assustados.)

Gatay said that he remained paralysed during all the appearance and a little after the disappearance of the UFO. While returning to the construction site, he was surprised when his colleagues told him that they also had suffered from singular paralysis, all being very frightened.

(Entretanto, n�o podiam confirmar o contato imediato de Gatay, pois nada tinham visto. N�o houve ind�cios de Missing Time (Sensaç�o de tempo perdido) nem de que Gatay tenha sido levado a bordo de uma nave. Porém, o uf�logo John Spencer, pesquisador do caso, salienta que em muitos epis�dios de abduç�o, a paralisia em massa é um fator comum, e que impede que outras pessoas presentes ou pr�ximas, interfiram no processo abdutivo.)

Nevertheless, they could not confirm the close contact of Gatay, of which they did not see anything. There were no indication of Missing Time (a feeling that time was missed) nor that Gatay was taken on board a vessel. Nevertheless, ufologist John Spencer, the investigator on this case, points out that in many abduction episodes, mass paralysis is a usual factor, and it prevents that the other people present or nearby intervene in the abduction process.

Grupo de Pesquisas Ufologicas de Americana

Gatay Encounter
SEPTEMBER 30, 1954>>MARCILLY-SUR-VIENNE, FRANCE

The foreman of a construction site near Marcilly-sur-Vienne, Georges Gatay, reported having a sense of fatigue come over him. He then began to walk away from the site unknowingly and towards a domed UFO with a small alien dressed in a diving suit. A laser projection seemed to be coming from his waist. The alien then vanished and high-pitched sound was heard. The UFO climbed skyward and was surrounded by a blue glow before vanishing.

Gatay returned to the construction site. His fellow workers had also felt fatigued and witnessed the ecounter. The witnesses suffered from lightheadedness, insomnia, and could not eat for the next several days. The post-event condition of the witnesses suggests a possible abduction. This is also suggested by the two gaps were the scene abbrutly changed.

DATE	DESCRIPTION	MICAP_CLAS	REF
09/30/1954	Marcilly-sur-Vienne, FR 30 Sep 54 Eight construction workers reported seeing a disc-shaped object on the ground. Nearby was a small humanoid wearing a helmet. (FOV) Both vanished in a very strange manner. Physiological effects in all witnesses. Event happened about 1630. (Cashman)	CE-3-102	Randle/Estes, FOV pg 266 ; M. Cashman email 7/25/98

Witness: Eight construction workers, including Georges Gatay

Location: Marcilly sur Vienne, France

Date: September 30, 1954

Time: 16:30

The witnesses observe a landed disk, with a humanoid occupant nearby. All witnesses suffered from physiological effects, such as severe headaches, loss of appetite, and insomnia. (Vallee, Passport to Magonia #165 and Schuessler, UFO Related...)

84.
Location: Marcilly-sur-Vienne France
Date: September 30 1954
Time: 1630

Georges Gatay, a construction worker, while working in a gravel pit, encountered a man wearing gray coveralls, whose head was covered with an opaque helmet coming down to his chest, on which was a light projector. In his hand was a rod-like object. Behind the man was a large shining dome hovering 3 ft above the ground; above the cupola were rotating blades. The man suddenly vanished, and the saucer rose jerkily with a whistle, and then disappeared in a blue haze. During the experience Gatay felt paralyzed. So did his 7 co-workers, who had seen the same thing. Gatay suffered from headaches & insomnia for a week.

Humcat 1954-61
Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia
Type: C

1954 - At 4:30 in the afternoon, Georges Gatay, construction supervisor, and seven construction workers in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, France saw a disc at ground level, with a humanoid standing next to it. Both vanished in a very odd manner. Physiological effects in all witnesses. (Sources: Michel Carrouges, Les apparitions de Martiens, pp. 123 & 125; France Soir, October 3, 1954; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, p. 213; Michel Figeut & Jean-Louis Ruchon, OVNI: Le premier dossier complet des rencontres rapprochees en France, pp. 96).

The Bacque and Gartey testimony is on page 80 of the monograph UFOs - A History 1954 September.

These two cases were considered together because they seemed to have similar elements. However, Gartey confessed to making up his story so a translation of his account is being omitted. The Bacque report could have value and its translation is given here. M. Bacque, an architect-engineer, saw an astonishing craft above Pau, at 10,000 meters altitude...M. Bacque saw it at 11 a.m. on September 30 and described it as a red sphere, from which four tubes protruded, maneuvering among stratus clouds. He observed it through a telescope for 45 minutes before it disappeared toward the west.

In his U-Database, the case of Marcilly-sur-Vienne is noted as a discredited case: "a prank went too far."

1954/09/30 MARCILLY-sur-VIENNE, FR aka Nouatre, FR: PRANK went too far. Non-event delisted.

The author indicates that like "Men-in-Black", UFOs are also capable of appearances and instantaneous or gradual disappearances.

He indicates as example that on September 30, 1954, in Nouatre in France at 16:30, George Gatay, building site foreman, observed a shining object in the shape of dome floating one meter above ground-level.

A humanoid capped of an opaque helmet stood in front of it, and this being disappears suddenly, "as an image which one erases in one blow" whereas the witness which did not leave it from his eyes, did not see it moving.

During the observation, Gatay and his workmen were paralysed and he would suffer from insomnia and headaches during one week.

The author indicates as source "Essai de classification des apparitions et disparitions sur place" by Jacques Scornaux in the "Lumières Dans la Nuit" magazine #170, page 6 in December 1977.

The author (who thinks UFOs are created by military personal who wants people to believe in aliens) mentions sightings in the Indre et Loire, including one on 30 September 1954 in Marcilly-Sur-Vienne.

Luc Chastan indicates that in the Indre et Loire in Marcilly sur Vienne on September 30, 1954, at 04:30 p.m. "At the location Nouatre, Mr. George Gatay, foreman, person in charge of a team of eight bricklayers, separates from his workmen. He feels "all weird" invaded of a certain torpor, and suddenly wonders where he is going. Suddenly, he is vis-a-vis a small being in front of a machine in the shape of a brilliant cupola. As soon as he sees the machine and the being, George Gatay tries to run, but he his frozen on the spot. He is like 'paralyzed' and all its workmen are, too. The being disappears on the spot and the apparatus takes off with a strong whistling sound which covers the noise that the excavators make. It rises by successive jumps, straight, then fades in a kind of blue fog, as by miracle. All the workmen saw it, and Mr. Lubanovic added: 'There was a man dessed like a diver'."

Luc Chastan comments: "This case is to discard because : Invention of the Witness".

Luc Chastan indicates that the source is "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... by Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979".

"Mykerinos" said that the case caused a lot of ink to flow and that "a few decades later, it seems that it still unleashes the passions as much." A pure and simple hoax for some, a real ufological case for others, despises for certain."

He said that in the case of a misunderstanding "the hypothesis that comes to mind is that of possible confusion with an army helicopter" and that this was considered by Michel Carrouges in his book "LEs Apparitions de Martiens" published in 1963 which he quotes as saying:

Mykeronos then states that "Mr. Renaud Leclet tries an approach in this direction, his theory (in the main line) is:"

A French army helicopter of Sikorsky S-55 type would be involved, the metallic gray color of the French aircraft of the 50s and 60s, the whistling sound and the noise heard that would be the blades of the rotor and the engine, and the fog observed which would be due to the exhaust (which is at the front and pointed down) and the acceleration of the engine to take altitude and speed."

The helmeted pilot corresponds to a combination of helicopter pilot protection tested in the 1950s with hood, helmet and bulletproof vest that could match the description of the main control and the small size may be due to the distance of the observation, about 10 meters, or it would simply be a pilot measuring 1m60. The bright beam described in the testimony could come either from the aircraft itself, from the garment (NBC) worn by the pilot or from equipment (Radio). "The weapon that he holds 'A pipe or a large revolver' may be used to keep the witness away from the apparatus (blade hazard, secret test, etc.)" and the paralysis of the witness "Is due to his fear, in front of a new situation unknown to him."

A navigation error would be the possible cause of this landing, a site error, during "confidential military maneuvers implementing new combat tactics?, there are several military structures in the area (Le camp du ruchard, The American sanitary camp of St-Benoit-la-Fôret, the military depot of Nouâtre (EMA), ect...)"

The author continues with information on the ALAT and the Sikorsky helicopters in France, and a link to this very file of my own website.

The website indicates that on 30 September 1954 at 16:30 in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, France, "Domed disc hovered 3' above ground. Above cupola were rotating blades. Man stood there, wore gray coveralls and opaque helmet, suddenly vanished, disc rose with whistle. Paralysis, headaches, insomnia. Explanation: Prank."

And: "At 4:30 in the afternoon, Georges Gatay, construction supervisor, and seven construction workers in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, France saw a disc at ground level, with a humanoid standing next to it. Both vanished in a very odd manner. Physiological effects in all witnesses."

And: "One domed disc, about 5 feet across, was observed by eight experienced male witnesses at a quarry for a few seconds (Gatey, F). A noise was heard. One humanoid, wearing a gray coverall and helmet, was seen."

And: "Georges Gatay, a construction worker, while working in a gravel pit, encountered a man wearing gray coveralls, whose head was covered with an opaque helmet coming down to his chest, on which was a light projector. In his hand was a rod-like object. Behind the man was a large shining dome hovering 3 ft above the ground; above the cupola were rotating blades. The man suddenly vanished, and the saucer rose jerkily with a whistle, and then disappeared in a blue haze. During the experience Gatay felt paralyzed. So did his 7 co-workers, who had seen the same thing. Gatay suffered from headaches and insomnia for a week."

The sources are indicated as Webb, David, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports; Guieu, Jimmy, Flying Saucers Come from Another World, Citadel, New York, 1956; Sparks, Brad, Computer Catalog of Type 9 Cases (N=150); Lorenzen, Coral E., Flying Saucer Occupants, Signet T3205, New York, 1967; Lorenzen, Coral E., Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, New York, 1976, ISBN:425-03093-8; Bowen, Charles, The Humanoids: FSR Special Edition No. 1, FSR, London, 1966; Pereira, Jader U., Les Extra-Terrestres, Phenomenes Spatiaux, Paris, 1974; Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); Vallee, Jacques, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1966; Vallee, Jacques, Preliminary Catalog (N = 500), (in JVallee01); Vallee, Jacques, A Century of Landings (N = 923), (in JVallee04), Chicago, 1969; Vallee, Jacques, Passport to Magonia, ; Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1969; Schoenherr, Luis, Computerized Catalog (N = 3173); Carrouges, Michel, Les Apparitions de Martiens, Fayard, Paris, 1963; Rogerson, Peter, World-Wide Catalog of Type 1 Reports; Bloecher, Ted R., Ted R Bloecher investigation files; Newspaper Clippings; Hatch, Larry, internet data; Rosales, Albert, Humanoid Sighting Reports Database.

The website indicates that on 30 September 1954 at 16:30 in Chinon, France, "Close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupants. One object was observed."

The author of the website indicates that in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, on September 30, 1954, at 04:30 p.m., several workmen are busy in a sand and stones pit at the edge of the secondary road, on the left bank of the Vienne, between Parcay and Marcilly opposite the military camp of Nouâtres (Camp of Ruchard), when they saw a "Craf" of circular form and its passenger land on the edges of the excavation.

The sources are indicated as : "Nouvelle république du centre-ouest" for 02.10 and 4.10.1954; "OVNI le Premier dossier complet des rencontres en France" A.Lefeuvre publisher 1979 by Michel Figuet & J.L Ruchon P.96; "Chronique des apparition E.T" J'ai Lu publisher A308 1977 by Jacques Vallée (Case No 165); "black-out sur les S.V" Omnium littéraire publisher 1972 by Jimmy Guieu P.161; LDLN No 165 P.8

Marcilly-Sur-Vienne, September 30, 1954, 04:30 p.m.

Several workmen are busy in a sand and stones quarry at the edge of the secondary road, on the left bank of the Vienne, between Parcay and Marcilly opposite the military camp of Nouâtres (Camp of Ruchard), we are Thursday, September 30 and it is 04:30 p.m., when they saw a "Machine" of circular form and its passenger land on the edges of the hole Sources: "Nouvelle république cu centre-ouest" for 10.02 and the 10.4, 1954 "OVNI le Premier dossier complet des rencontres en France" A.Lefeuvre Publisher 1979 by Michel Figuet & J.L Ruchon P.96 "Chronique des apparition E.T" J'ai Lu Publisher A308 1977 by Jacques Vallée (Case #165) "blackout sur les S.V" Omnium littéraire Publishers 1972 by Jimmy Guieu P.161 LDLN #165 P.8

UFO Disappears into Thin Air

B J Booth

Summary:

A UFO case that is now over 50 years old still holds its own as one of the most bizarre events in Ufology. The incident occurred in Nouatre, Indre-et-Loire, France in 1954. This unusual encounter, though investigated, has never been explained by any natural or conventional means. The strange events began on an excavation site at 4:30 PM on September 30.

"Peculiar Drowsiness":

The principal player in this most unusual event is one George Gatay, who was the foreman of an eight-man crew. While at work, he felt compelled to leave his post, feeling a "peculiar drowsiness." He can remember walking, but was not in control of where he was going, as if being led by some strange force. Suddenly, he was in sight of a being of some kind wearing a glass helmet with a visor, standing on the slope of a hill, some 30 feet distance from him.

Strange Looking Man:

The being, clad in a gray coverall and short boots, held a type of instrument in his hand. Gatay thought it to be a weapon. The being's uniform had some type of display panel on it. Behind him was an object which was dome-shaped. It did not rest on the ground-there was several feet of space between it and ground contact. The object also had a cupola-like top with what looked like blades around it. Gatay was frozen where he stood.

Gatay's Own Words:

"Yes--A flying saucer!":

Gatay was almost frightened to death by what he was observing. Trying to flee from the scene, he could not. Unknown to him at the time, his crew was also in a type of daze during their foreman's encounter. Although the working men were not believers in UFOs before the incident, they certainly would be afterward. Gatay, after being freed from his trance, ran to his crew, asking them if they had seen anything. One of the crewman Beurrois said: "Yes-A flying saucer!" Excavator driver Mr. Lubanovic stated, "There was a man dressed like a diver in front of it."

Medical Illness:

The entire crew had witnessed the event, and agreed on the details of the encounter. Gatay, a soldier and man of reputation, began to suffer from sleeplessness, loss of appetite, and headaches after the sighting. After about a week, the symptoms subsided. None of the other crewmen had any medical problems, being much farther from the craft than Gatay.

Other Wordly Craft:

Although the crewmen had been involved in a strange, bizarre event, at first, they all believed that they had seen a type of governmental experimental craft. Though possible, the fact that the object vanished into thin air would rule out any product of our planet. They also considered the possibility that the being was a robot, and not alien. Again, a possibility, but if this was true, what kind of power did the robots have to induce the men into a stupor for a period of time? This case is still unexplained.

France - 1954

A very unique case of a UFO landing, an alien sighting, and other-worldly powers occurred in Nouatre, Indre-et-Loire, France, in 1954. On September 30, at about 4:30 PM, strange events began to unfold at a construction site. George Gatay was crew chief of 8 workers. He was a well respected man, who during the Germany occupation in World War II, had fought for the French Resistance, and was wounded at Luxembourg.

While working, Gatay began to feel drowsy, and compelled to leave the job site. A short distance from the site, he was shocked to see a being standing on a hill, about 30 feet away. The being had a semi-transparent helmet, with a large visor. He was dressed in gray coveralls, and short boots.

The being held something in his hand, which Gatay thought might be a weapon. He also had what appeared to be an electronic display on the chest of his uniform. Behind the being sat a dome-shaped object. Gatay was frozen where he stood.

Gatay stated: "Suddenly, the strange man vanished, and I couldn't explain how he did it, since he did not disappear from my field of vision by walking away, but vanished like an image one erases."

"Then I heard a strong whistling sound which drowned out the noise of our excavators. Soon the object rose by successive jerks, in a vertical direction, and then it too was erased in a sort of blue haze, as if by a miracle."

Several of the crew members came forth with corroborating statements, confirming seeing the alien creature, and watching the disappearance of the UFO. Gatay suffered some physical ailments after the encounter. These lasted for a week, and included insomnia, bad headaches, and loss of appetite.

His co-workers, all non-believers before the incident, also felt dazed during the encounter. Gatay, who was much closer to the UFO, was even paralyzed briefly. There has never been a satisfactory, earthly explanation for what Gatay and his crewmen saw.

September 30 1954, 1630hrs.

MARCILLY-SUR-VIENNE (INDRE ET LOIRE : FRANCE)

Georges Gatay, the head of a team of eight construction workers, found himself walking away from the other workers in a kind of drowsy daze. Suddenly he encountered, less than 10m above him on a slope, a strange man. He was dressed in grey overalls, short boots and an opaque glass helmet with a visor coming down to his chest. In his hand he held an object than reminded Gatay of a pistol, and on his chest was a light projector. The stranger was standing in front of a large dome with a cupola, on top of which were rotating blades, hovering 1m above the ground. Suddenly the stranger just vanished, and the object took off with a loud whistling noise and the craft rose vertically in a series of jerks, until it too disappeared in a blue haze. During the episode Gatay and his co-workers. Messes Beurrois, Lubanovic, Sechet, Villeneuve, Rougier and Amiraut) were paralysed. The others saw the object and being. Following the incident Gatay suffered from insomnia, headaches and loss of appetite for a week. According to Alain Gamard this case as a hoax

Vallee 1969, p.68 + Vallee Case 165 citing Ici-Paris. 11 October 1954 + France-Soir 3 October 1954.

*Sep. 30, 1954 - At 4:30 in the afternoon, Georges Gatay, construction supervisor, and seven construction workers in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, France saw a disc at ground level, with a humanoid standing next to it. Both vanished in a very odd manner. Physiological effects in all witnesses. (Sources: Michel Carrouges, Les apparitions de Martiens, pp. 123 & 125; France Soir, October 3, 1954; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p. 213; Michel Figuet & Jean-Louis Ruchon, OVNI: Le premier dossier complet des rencontres rapprochees en France, pp. 96).

Location: Marcilly-sur-Vienne France

Date: September 30 1954

Time: 1630

Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia 165

The author evokes this case as a false close encounter of the third kind which allegedly took place in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, in the Indre-et-Loire, on September 30, 1954 at 4.30 p.m.:

Working in a quarry, Mr. Georges Gatey, foreman, had moved away from his workers for a moment, and suddenly felt himself overcome by torpor, and confused. He then saw at 1 meter from the ground a circular object surmounted by a dome equipped with blades similar to those of a helicopter. Next to the craft, he saw a small man of 1.50 m, dressed in a gray jumpsuit and whose head was covered with an opaque plastic helmet with a visor. Mr. Gatey and his seven workers, also witnesses of the scene, then felt paralyzed. The being disappeared on the spot and the craft took off with a loud whistling sound, to disappear in a blue haze.

After the incident, Mr. Gatey suffered from insomnia, headaches and lost his appetite for eight days.

Julien Gonzalez indicates as the sources of this story, Jimmy Guieu, "Black-Out sur les Soucoupes Volantes", pages 141- 142; Michel Carrouges, "Les apparitions de Martiens", pages 123-124; Jacques Vallée, "Chroniques des Apparitions extraterrestres", pages 103-104; Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon, "OVNI: le premier dossier complet des rencontres rapprochées en France", page 96; Jean Sider, "Le dossier 1954 et l'imposture rationaliste", pages 174-175; Ici Paris for October 11, 1954; La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest for Oxtober 4, 1954.

He then indicates that in reality, a counter-investigation carried out in 1980 by Messrs Gouzien and Gaudeau led to the discovery of one of the "witnesses" who explained to them that Mr. Gatey's merry team had invented the whole case. When they returned from work in the evening in the restaurant owner's café in Nouâtre who had boarded them, they said they had seen "a flying saucer". A correspondent for the local newspaper, who was present, took this at face value and warned his editorial staff, and from the next day reporters poured in and witnesses did not dare to deny the first statements they had made to investigators. However, the Chinon gendarmes quickly noticed the deception. It was only several months later that a short article in La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest revealed that the Gatey affair was a hoax.

Julien Gonzalez indicates as the source of the explanation a personal communication from Mr. Claude Gaudeau in September 2013.

September 30 1954. 1630hrs.

MARCILLY-SUR-VIENNE (INDRE ET LOIRE : FRANCE)

Georges Gatay, the head of a team of eight construction workers, found himself walking away from the other workers in a kind of drowsy daze. Suddenly he encountered, less than 10m above him on a slope, a strange man. He was dressed in grey overalls, short boots and an opaque glass helmet with a visor coming down to his chest. In his hand he held an object than reminded Gatay of a pistol, and on his chest was a light projector. The stranger was standing in front of a large dome with a cupola, on top of which were rotating blades, hovering 1m above the ground. Suddenly the stranger just vanished, and the object took off with a loud whistling noise and the craft rose vertically in a series of jerks, until it too disappeared in a blue haze. During the episode Gatay and his co-workers Messes Beurrois, Lubanovic, Sechet, Villeneuve, Rougier and Amiraut) were paralysed. The others saw the object and being. Following the incident Gatay suffered from insomnia, headaches and loss of appetite for a week

Vallee 1969 p68 + Vallee Case 165 citing Ici-Paris 11 October 1954. + France-Soir 3 October 1954.

Evaluation - A probable hoax According to Garreau and Lavier. Gatay later confessed that the thing was a hoax. CF Paquet 1978 p178

37/11 - 1954 September 30 - Marcilly-sur-Vienne

This case perfectly illustrates the difficulty of determining the seriousness, or not, of the cases of this wave. The latter cannot be reduced only to hoaxes on the pretext that they exist, as this example would seem to prove:

It is 4:30 p.m. when a spacecraft and its occupant were observed by seven quarrymen of this locality. The names of the witnesses were published in all the newspapers. But when the local investigator from the Ouranos group, Mr. Grondeau, went �on the hunt�, the damage was already done. Many scoffers had copiously made fun of the quarrymen and the latter, angry, embittered, had decided not to utter a word of their incredible adventure. However, here is what the main witness objectively said to La Nouvelle République for October 4, 1954: We were able to question Mr. Georges G., site manager of a quarry in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, and main witness to the event, as well than his six comrades. We report the impression that these men are sincere and trustworthy. Their declarations, they confirmed them Friday and Saturday to professional investigators who did not fail, in their turn, to be impressed by the accent of sincerity of the witnesses.

Monsieur G. and his workers were busy hauling sand and gravel in a roadside quarry near Marcilly. Everyone was at their place, some with mechanical shovels, others with freight elevators. Mr. G. was away, closer to the exit of the quarry. It was he who first saw the craft, a circular device surmounted by a dome equipped, apparently, with blades similar to those of a helicopter. The craft was in motionless flight at one meter from the ground. The "blades" rotating very quickly. It did not land on the ground.

A small being, about 1.50 meters, wearing a helmet made of opaque material, resembling clouded glass and which fell on his shoulders (bell-shaped helmet), dressed in an outfit of neutral tone, wearing short boots, was next to the craft. He held in his hand some kind of large revolver or an instrument whose end in the shape of a barrel - or a pipe - made it look like a firearm. On its chest, the being sported a very shiny disk, projecting an intense beam of light. No one in the quarry (several meters below the road and the surrounding terrain) had seen the craft arrive, nor had heard it. It should also be noted that the machines in operation made a real racket.

Mr. G. is categorical: the craft remained for at least 30 seconds, more than enough time for him to examine it.

The story doesn't end there. The main witness gives other details about this strange encounter. "My legs were severed and I couldn't take a step, pinned to the ground by the effects of the ray emitted by the 'man'. "Monsieur G. could not invent this particular point. Indeed Monsieur Dewilde was himself paralyzed by a mysterious ray coming from a craft posed not far from him.

Another witness, Mr. A. was in his truck and then arrived at the quarry. He saw the stunned quarrymen looking toward the entrance to the yard and followed their gazes. He then saw "something greyish" which was not usually there, rising in the air.

"The man got back into his craft", declared Mr. G. without me being able to say where, then the craft took height, vertically, in jerks, whistling, like the jet fighters engines do. At an altitude of about 200 meters, it emitted a fog which completely concealed it and disappeared from view."

Personal note: On reading the testimony, the description of the craft does not correspond in any way to what is then described throughout France. The hoax would therefore be probable and it was this same newspaper which denounced the deception a few months later.

In fact, it was therefore a joke on the part of Mr G. intended for the restorer of Nouâtre who had the site manager and his workers in pension. A correspondent of the newspaper being present, the case "was folded" and found itself de facto in the newspaper. If this information is correct why invent this detail "blades like on a helicopter"? During this great wave of 1954, no other testimony mentions this fact! I believe more willingly that in order to be quiet, Mr. Gatey and his comrades preferred to admit a hoax rather than maintain their observation and for good reason! ... The many details concerning the presence of small beings on the soil of France are identical to many other descriptions made during this wave of 1954.

Sources: La Nouvelle République, October 4, 1954 � In "RR3 - le dossier des rencontres du troisième type en France" by J. Gonsalez p. 432 - "Dossier 1954" pp. 174-175 by Jean Sider - "black-out sur les S.V" Fleuve Noir pub. 1956 by J. Guieu p. 141 and "LDLN" nr 165 p.8)

In their web page about the 1954 French flap in France, Wikipedia FR mentions 21 sightings of the "flap", including:

[... other cases...]

September 30 [, 1954]: near Marcilly-sur-Vienne, in the department of Indre-et-Loire, Georges Gatay, construction site foreman, and seven workers see a disc at ground level and a small humanoid wearing a helmet. The disc and the humanoid disappear in a very strange manner².

[... other cases...]

The source "2" is noted as "(en) UFO Vanishes in France [archive]." A link brings to a web page of the UFO Casebook Webiste ([uck1])

Explanations:

Jacques vallée uses this case which is noted as a prank to claim that UFOs are not extraterrestrial vehicles but illusions created by an unspecified intelligence. He argues that UFOs are not objects because they can dematerialize and they produce psychic effects on the witnesses. Here we have one of the 5 cases only in Passport from Magonia which - disputably - seem support such a view, and it seems to be nothing else than a prank which Paris Match reported as such back then.

One may however suppose that even the notion of a the hoax is doubtful, and wonder which kind of machine has "blades which turn" above its "dome", and an engine able to cover the noise of the excavators, if not an helicopter.

But ultimately, the important thing in this case is that it seems to have only the Press as source of information, and to lack any real investigation by ufologists having truly interviewed the witnesses. One may thus speculate ad infinitum in the explanation of the business, hoax, hélicopter, extraterrestrial flying saucer, hallucination or ultradimensional witness-manipulating intelligence, but I fear that these speculations are of low interest.

Keywords:

Marcilly-sur-Vienne, Indre-et-Loire, Georges Gatay, multiple, disk, landing, humanoid, occupant, effects, hoax, invention

Case Nr.	Date of observation	Place of observation	Country of observation	Hour of observation	Classification
19540000	00.00.1954	Marcilly	France		CE II
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Nouatre	France		CE II
19540930	30.09.1954	Nouatre	France		CE II
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly	France		CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France		CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France		CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France		CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Marcilly Vienne	France	16.30	CE III
19540930	30.09.1954	Novatre	France
19540930	30.09.1954	Nou�tre	France
19540930	30.09.1954	Chinon	France	16.30	CE III

Version:	Created/Changed by:	Date:	Change Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	November 8, 2006	First published.
1.0	Patrick Gross	February 11, 2010	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [goe1].
1.1	Patrick Gross	June 19, 2010	Addition [jve5].
1.2	Patrick Gross	June 19, 2010	Addition [jsc1].
1.3	Patrick Gross	July 3, 2010	Additions [jve7], [fbn3], [lcn1], [tie2].
1.4	Patrick Gross	July 11, 2010	Additions [jgu1], [gdn1].
1.5	Patrick Gross	October 19, 2011	Addition [tie3].
1.6	Patrick Gross	August 13, 2013	Addition [prn3].
1.7	Patrick Gross	November 15, 2014	Addition [nip1].
1.8	Patrick Gross	October 25, 2016	Additions [ucb1], [ucb2].
1.9	Patrick Gross	January 11, 2017	Additions [nrc1], [tbr1], [idb1], [goe1], [tie1], [tie4], [tai1], [ubk1].
2.0	Patrick Gross	February 20, 2017	Addition [jgz1].
2.1	Patrick Gross	March 16, 2021	Additions [prn1], [lgs1], [lgs2], [krs1], [prn2].
2.2	Patrick Gross	October 30, 2021	Additions [gqy2], [tbw1].
2.3	Patrick Gross	November 19, 2021	Additions [mtn1], [gqy1], [jpu1], [fle1], [pvy1], [mft3].
2.4	Patrick Gross	March 20, 2022	Additions [jsx1], [jsx2], [ldl1].
2.5	Patrick Gross	May 16, 2022	Additions [lgs3], [gep1], [jqy1], [wia1].
2.6	Patrick Gross	June 12, 2022	Addition [fru1].
2.7	Patrick Gross	July 6, 2022	Additions [gab1], [gab2], [mft2].

The 1954 French flap:

September 30, 1954, Marcilly-sur-Vienne, Indre-et-Loire:

Reports:

The seven workers of the quarry of Marcilly-sur-Vienne told us their strange adventure

A man of small size, 1.50 m to 1.55 m approximately

The saucers Courier...

My legs were cut

That's it

Alone, I would not have said anything

In [?] of Bressuire

In the Indre

In the Nièvre

A written question to the Minister of the Air

Space visitors, these unknowns:

Marcilly-sur-Vienne

UFO Vanishes in France

Georges Gatay

A man is paralyzed during an encounter

UFO Disappears into Thin Air

Summary:

"Peculiar Drowsiness":

Strange Looking Man:

Gatay's Own Words:

"Yes--A flying saucer!":

Medical Illness:

Other Wordly Craft:

37/11 - 1954 September 30 - Marcilly-sur-Vienne

Explanations:

Keywords:

Sources:

Document history: