The 1954 French flap:

The "saucer"
of Tingry was but...
a moon effect

We told with great objectivity, the interview which an engineer had kindly granted us, who, Sunday evening, on the Tingry plateau had seen in the distance two discs of reddish color.

Was it a saucer or an optical illusion?

We received yesterday the visit of Mr. Constant, who was also on Sunday on the Tingry plateau in the company of Mr. Deperdin, a teacher at the Desoteux school.

He is adamant and told us: "It was not a flying saucer, and this phenomenon was nothing extraordinary."

"It was quite simply a moon effect, as can be seen in the evening."

This statement is not intended to surprise us, although we do not question the engineer's words for a moment.

But it is obviously very difficult to know whether all the phenomena that we can see in the sky are optical effects, shooting stars or devices of a nature that we do not know.

M. D.

The Fabulous day of October 3, 1954

[...]

Chronology of the observations of October 3.

We give here only a summary of what was published in the press of the time, for the nord region, regardless of what the ufologists could later say. We have numbered all these observations, the first of which have nothing to do with the setting of the moon, in order to be able to study them globally in a table. Some are already the subject of a special file.

[... other cases...]

47) evening, plate of TINGRY (62)

- Mr Depersin, teacher, and Mr Constant, observed the same phenomenon as Mr Marcel Thiebaut but recognized it as a moonset.

(le Journal du Pas de Calais et de la Somme 7/10 page 2)

[... other cases...]

All this is only a compilation of the information given by all newspapers of the time, including local editions, and of which ufologists only used a part.

We will see that the analysis of this information makes it possible to eliminate the hypothesis of a flying saucer, in favor of those of multiple observations of the moon, whose image was reddened and deformed by clouds, which also gave it a illusory apparent movement.

Analysis of the observations of October 3, 1954

[... other cases...]

47) evening, plate of TINGRY (62)

Identified as the moon by the witnesses.

[... other cases...]