The 1954 French flap:

Did a luminous flying saucer land in Marignane?

A strange apparatus was seen on the track where metallic remains were found

(From our special correspondent Constant VAUTRAVERS)

Swept by an icy mistral [cold wind of the area] under a sky amazingly clear, the runway of the airport of Marignane is really the last place where one could be the subject of an hallucination. It is sufficiently cold there so that one remains awaken, even during the nights of guard.

And yet...

However, a certain number of members of the personnel of the airport wonder whether they did not dream. Did a flying saucer land one moment on the track? Nobody, of course, can give an unquestionable answer to this question which we asked many times during our investigation.

Furthermore, each one keeps a careful reserve. And we even had to play hide-and-seek to manage to supplement our information.

What happened?

Read the rest in Last Minutes under the headline FLYING SAUCERS

Flying saucers

The fireman on duty

Monday evening around 9 p.m., consequently in middle of the night, a moonless night since the new moon began the next day, fireman Chesneau was of guard at the large Boussiron hangar.

In the sort of quadrilateral that the airport and its tracks are forming, and the edge of the pond of Berre, the Boussiron hangar occupies the most distant angle towards the West; its giant doors look "transversely" at the main track.

The fireman was standing at the entry, all the more attentive since Boussiron houses a new transportation craft, the Hurel-Dubois prototype with wings of very great lengthening. From where he was, leaned on the concrete walls, the fireman, well sheltered from the mistral which blew looked at multicolored clearness of the track.

A round and luminous craft

Suddenly, he saw, coming from the South, "a round and luminous craft" which went down at moderate speed in what he judged to be the direction of the track. The machine soon touched the ground, rebounded slightly a few times.

However one does not await a plane at that hour, in Marignane. Perhaps this was a mislaid airplane, some private plane deprived of on-board radio? This happened once with an English plane.

By professional consciousness, the fireman alerted the tower telephonically. But while he phoned from the inside, the craft had to disappear. The calls of the tower of control remaining without answer the duty officer was alerted. Left by car, all headlights lit, he crossed the section of track and its surroundings in all directions without finding anything.

Assumptions

The night proceeded while assumptions were made. Was this a weather balloon? The apparent shape and the whiteness that could have been mistaken for a vague luminosity could incline towards this answer. But the characteristic of a balloon is to follow the wind. However the wind (mistral) blew from the North-West, and the object came from the south...

Was this a meteor? In this case its fall would have been at the same time more vertical, faster, and the shock on the ground would have been felt, as a so little distance.

It wasn't an airplane. So?

The gendarmerie, guardian of the airport, had been alerted. And during their night rounds, the patrol had carried out searches too. Without success.

The following day morning, on board a jeep, an investigator returned on the spot. No upheaval of the ground, no meteor crater. No trace of balloon either.

A score of metallic debris

On the other hand one was to collect, scattered on the track, a score of metallic debris among which several small long stems of about fifteen centimeters bent at an end and finishing at the other end by a ball, a little larger than a marble. Yellow metal traces, contrasting with the blackish gray color of the ball, let think that this one was like brazed on the stem.

We could not learn which to whom these remains whose nature and source remain to be explained were entrusted. According to some of our interlocutors they could be ends of plans of antenna, a kind of mass to ensure the tension of an cable-antenna of plane. Others do not recognize this origin.

The "mystery" remains

"So... Is it a saucer?"

Nobody answered our question. Maybe it is, maybe it ain't! "Let's imitate of Conrart the careful silence."

... But let us recall all the same that two years ago, in this sky of Marignane where in this moment, after a twin-engine of transport, a flotilla of "Mystères" [jet fighters] with sweptback wings, evolves while whistling, a customs officer ensured to have seen a flying saucer land, at night, and fly away a few moments later.

Constant VAUTRAVERS

IT HAPPENED IN THE MIDI...

Did
A FLYING SAUCER
land on the Marignane airport?

And that would be a "repeat"!

Marseille, 8 (A.C.P.). -- Strange facts to say the least were recorded on the airport of Marignane; which make it possible to ask the question: did a flying saucer land?

These facts go back to Monday evening, and there is only one witness: the firefighter on duty, Chesneau.

One dark night, a little after 9 p.m., Chesneau was on duty at the Boussiron hangar.

Suddenly, he saw, coming from the south, "a rounded and luminous craft" which descended at moderate speed in what he judged to be the direction of the strip. The craft soon touched the ground, bounced slightly a few times...

However, one did not expect a plane at that time in Marignane. Maybe it was a lost aircraft, some private plane without an onboard radio?

Out of professional consciousness, the firefighter phoned the tower. But, while he called from inside, the craft must have disappeared because the calls from the control tower remained unanswered.

Continued on page 12, under the title
FLYING SAUCER

FLYING SAUCER

A car inspected the track, all headlights on, but found nothing. The same was true of all the night patrols carried out by the gendarmerie patrols, who guard the aerodrome.

METAL "DEBRIS"

When the day broke, more careful research revealed, scattered on the strip, about twenty metallic debris, among which several small rods about fifteen centimeters long, curved at one end and ending at the the other by a ball a little bigger than a marble. Traces of yellow metal, contrasting with the blackish gray hue of the ball, suggest that it has been soldered to the rod.

As usual, the greatest caution is required when it comes to flying saucers. However, the various hypotheses put forward to explain the event were discarded. If it had been a meteor, it would have fallen vertically [!], and the debris would be different. It cannot be an airplane. A balloon? Then its course would have followed the wind direction, while the "thing" was heading in the opposite direction.

Already, two years ago, it was reported that a "flying saucer" had landed and left Marignane. The witness was then a customs officer.

The greatest mystery
of all times!

WHAT ARE THEY?
WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?

III. FOR THE SECOND TIME, A FLYING SAUCER
LANDS IN MARIGNANE

by Jimmy Guieu

If we are to believe the authorities at Marignane airport (1), the night of Monday January 4, 1954, would have been a night like all the others, a little colder however, because of the icy wind which swept the strip. However, that evening, at 9 p.m., it was no longer a customs officer, but a fireman - Mr. Chesneau - who witnessed a stunning display.

While he was leaning against the Boussiron hangar (far west of the grounds), firefighter Chesneau saw a weird discoidal craft come down from the sky, radiating a white light. The lenticular apparatus, at low speed, descended on the runway, touched the ground, bounced three or four times like a conventional airplane, then came to a stop, illuminating this portion of the runway with a strange light.

Worried by the unexpected arrival of this "evening visitor", Chesneau rushed into a neighboring building to make a phone call. But, as he called the control tower, then a duty officer, the lenticular craft silently disappeared. Of course, just like the customs officer Gachignard, the firefighter Chesneau was put in the category of the hallucinated and the visionaries... However, the next morning, an investigator found metal rods flanked by a small ball at one end, as well as by other metal debris, exactly where the flying disc landed!

(1) See the journal for January 9.

Indeed, scattered on the track, a hundred metallic "debris" which should not have been there had just been discovered. The largest of them were stems about an inch long. Curved into a small circle, incompletely closed at one end, they carried, at the other end, a kind of ball about a centimeter in diameter.

What happened to those fragments left on the ground? No one - in principle - knows...

Before this astounding news was released to the public by the press, I learned that one "Mr. X." got this information from a certain "Mr. Z.", technician at the airport. I immediately called "Mr. Z." The latter, not without hesitation, admitted to me that indeed, this "tip" was correct.

- But, he added, you would do well to contact "Mr. Y.", who will give you better information than I...

Continued on page 8, under the title
SAUCERS

SAUCERS

(I specify that "Mr. Z." was fully aware of the "incident" he had reported to my informant).

So I called "Mr. Y." The latter, hesitating, whispers a few words to one of his colleagues, remains silent for a moment, then agrees to answer me:

- I'm not quite sure what you mean. Instead, consult "that" service. There, "one" will inform you.

Annoyed by this series of evasions, I contacted the indicated service... to hear myself say:

- I'll pass "Mr. N." He, will inform you.

Probably voiceless, "Mr. N." listened to me... and simply hung up!

In less than an hour, I was making eleven phone calls that each brought me to a wall of silence. A "voice" even insinuated that there was no firefighter named Chesneau in Marignane... Whereas my colleague and friend, journalist Constant Vautravers, spoke with him for a moment the next morning! This interview, too brief, did not allow Vautravers to gather many details. So he made an appointment with firefighter Chesneau for the afternoon.

At the appointment time, the journalist and his photographer heard the "eyewitness". Not seeing him arrive, they questioned a firefighter on duty. The latter explained to them that Chesneau was currently in that building.

Vautravers and his photographer therefore walked towards the said building. Looking back mechanically, the photographer remained stunned: the interrogated firefighter was heading towards an office at the airport!

The motive for this very discreet rush was very clear. When our friends arrived (the last) at the indicated building, firefighter Chesneau was no longer there.

We do not believe that this evasion was an initiative of the witness or his colleague. This apparently followed an order. All the people, all the services Vautravers turned to then sent him... elsewhere. Everywhere he noticed the same reluctance, the same hesitations and the same instructions that I had encountered. No one could tell him what had happened to the metal fragments left on the ground by the flying disc.

Another journalist friend of mine also experienced the same unsuccessful tribulations.

All airport staff seemed to have been instructed to remain silent.

When questioned, the airport police issued a statement: the phenomenon of January 4 was caused by a "classic rocket." (Statement broadcast by Radio-Marseille during the broadcast of January 8, 1954).

A classic rocket? Does that mean a friendly firecracker... Or a V-2 type remote-controlled vehicle?

In both cases, the "rocket" would not have exploded... silently, and would not have left on the track a hundred curled rods. As for the V2 version it is inadmissible. A formidable detonation would have signaled it and the crater, at its point of impact, could not have gone unnoticed.

Some went so far as to want to prove that the metal fragments discovered were nothing more than the clappers of bells, the claps of bells rattling around the necks of goats! Obviously, this suggests that hundreds of goats and sheep graze peacefully on the runways!

Starting off, we can expect to see the herds moving to the Marignane aerodrome one day...

The reality is quite different. After much cross-checking we can advance the following facts:

a) Technicians meticulously searched the place where the craft landed.

b) They took samples from the ground and found traces of the craft.

c) The metallic elements discovered would be studied in a laboratory.

And if, in the end, it was all just a story put together from start to finish, to what end was the wall of silence erected? Why did one take such precautions while taking these conspirators faces?

Contrary to appearances, would the Air Ministry be "discreetly" interested in "unidentified aerial objects"?

We believe, at the International Commission of Investigations, that the flying saucers are neither hallucinations, nor weather balloons, nor optical illusions, nor secret weapons, nor American or Russian projectiles or prototypes or others, neither meteors, nor ball lightning and other implausible explanations that astronomers and supporters of sacrosanct scientific dogmas want at all costs to make us admit... sacrosaints but not eternal.

The world will live, in the not very distant future, the most fantastic adventure that humanity has ever experienced.

Whatever one says or writes about flying saucers, we would like to affirm that people who witness such "phenomena" do not dream. These craft really exist.

They have nothing in common with what has already been seen in the field of "aerial" vehicles... in the very broad sense of the term.

If you ever see a lenticular apparatus in the sky or on the ground one day - or one night, don't panic. Immediately call the nearest aerodrome or notify the police or the gendarmerie and immediately send a detailed report of your observation to the International Commission of Investigation, 27, rue Etienne-Dolet, Bondy (Seine) which will respect your anonymity if you stipulate it.

The United States Air Force has 75 observation bases around the world, specially designed for the study of flying saucers. The US government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating these lenticular craft. They maintain fighter squadrons ready to take off 24/24 and even uses intelligence agents in its investigations.

England, Denmark and Canada have formed commissions of investigation to elucidate the mystery of the flying discs. The French Air Ministry probably did not lag behind...

Do you believe that such means of action, such precautions would be taken, everywhere and in almost all countries, to chase away... sounding balloons and meteors?

To answer in the affirmative would be to show an inconceivable naivety, a blindness, above all, perfectly unjustified.

JIMMY GUIEU

Director of the Investigation Service
of the International Commission.

Copyright by Jimmy Guieu.

Tomorrow: GHOST SAUCERS

First article: every day, the French weather forecast launches more than 150 "jokes and tricks of all kinds" into the sky, by Ch. GARREAU.

CLASSIFICATION [Blackened out]

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROACASTS

			REPORT NO.	00-W-29903
			CO NO.:	..
COUNTRY:	Denmark, Dahomey (French West Africa), France, Sweden, West Germany, Pakistan, Union of South Africa		DATE OF INFORMATION:	1953-1954
SUBJET:	Military; Scientific - Unidentified flying objects
HOW PUBLISHED:	Daily newspaper		DATE DIST.:	20 Apr 1954
WHERE PUBLISHED:	As indicated		NO. OF PAGES:	4
DATE PUBLISHED:	2 Nov 1953 - 27 Jan 1954
LANGUAGES:	French, German, Afrikaans, Swedish		SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT NO.:
[Blackened out]	[Blackened out]		THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOURCE:	As indicated

SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

[... (Reports from other countries and France) ...]

UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT AT MARIGNANE AIRFIELD -- Nice, Nice-Matin, 9 Jan 54

Shortly after 2100 hours on 4 January, a round, luminous machine, coming from the south, landed at the Marignane airfield in Bouches-du-Rhône Department. There was only one witness present at the field. The machine disappeared while he was telephoning the control tower. Careful scrutiny of the runway in the morning turned up a few pieces of metallic debris. The witness' story was confirmed by that of a Marseilles resident who, driving from Arles to Marseilles saw a large, round, reddish, fiery ball in the sky, but placed the time at 2245 hours.

[... (Next reports)]

On January 4, 1954, at 9 p.m., a discoidal spacecraft landed for a short time on the Marignane airfield (Bouches-du-Rhône). In "Flying Saucers Come From Another World", I meticulously recounted the adventures of my investigation; the awkward wall of silence that my friend Constant Vautravers (journalist) and I came up against was very real, as real as the spacecraft we were trying to get information about.

The day after it landed, an official investigation was opened by the authorities.

On page 152 of my previous book, I wrote:

- The next morning, aboard a Jeep, an investigator returned to the scene (of the landing)... and discovered, scattered on the runway, a hundred pieces of metal debris, including several small rods the length of about fifteen centimeters, curved at one end and ending at the other end in a ball, a little bigger than a marble... No one was able to specify to whom these debris were handed, their nature remains to be explained...".

By a happy coincidence, I obtained "confidentially" for a few hours one of these mysterious stems... "borrowed" by my informant!

- You don't need to be an expert in metallography to recognize the purely terrestrial (and even down to earth!) nature of the object (I wrote in my previous book, page 155). It was simply a vulgar piece of iron wire bent at one end and on the other end of which had been welded or brazed a rather coarse, blackened and oxidized copper ball! Does this mean that the landing of the flying saucer was only a vast hoax? No. Because the rod that we filmed and photographed (...) was not consistent with the fragments and others "really" found at the landing site".

The real "stems" would have disappeared. So remained the other rods, those of which I had had a specimen in hand. For the latter, very innocuous objects made of iron wire ending in a copper ball: not a single technician could be found capable of explaining their nature! A daily newspaper, imperturbable, affirmed that it was quite simply the clappers of goat bells, numerous (it seems!) on the aerodrome of Marignane!

For more than a year, these twisted rods remained an impenetrable mystery to the authorities until one day - horror and damnation! - it was discovered to be "Constellation" grounding! (Rods suspended under the plane and allowing it, during landing, to possibly "discharge" its static electricity).

The Bulletin de Liaison of the Marseille Airport (year 1955, No. 2) does not hide the fact that, for more than a year, all the research carried out to identify these "mysterious stems with balls" remained in vain; all the technical services were consulted, as well as experts most likely, but to no avail.

- A providential coincidence, writes the "Bulletin de l'Aéroport", brought to meet an Air France mechanic who gave the key to the enigma: the mysterious object is quite simply a Constellation grounding!

We remain in awe in front of this laborious investigation carried out by technicians who could not bring the slightest solution, which was found by a mechanic! But we remain positively frozen in front of the weakness of mind of this editor who, in the most serious way, affirmed that the said embossed rods were only clappers of goat bells!

And how much I prefer, to this sentence of minus habens, the amusing conclusion of the "Airport Bulletin".

- A thousand regrets, Mr. Jimmy Guieu. The mysterious object does not come from another planet! We do not affirm that flying saucers do not exist, but we can assure that the one of January 4, 1954, if there is a saucer, did not leave metallic objects on the ground."

January 4, 1954

09 : 00 p.m.: Marignane (B. du Rhône): brief landing of a discoid luminous craft

January 4, 1954:

Marignane (Bouche-du-Rhône): fireman Chesneau (circular ESPI)

Jan. 4, 1954- Marignane airport, France. Brief landing of luminous sphere;
peculiar metallic debris allegedly left behind. (Guieu, op. 134-5.)

January 4, 1954- At Marigname [sic] airport in France Fragments Were Left by a reported cigar-shaped UFO, which landed on the airport runway.

123) Jan. 04, 1954 2100 [09:00 P.M.]. Marignane Airport (France).

Mr. Chesneau, fireman, saw a round luminous object slowly coming down and called the control tower to report it. When he came out again, the object had disappeared (Guieu).

January 4, 1954 09:00 p.m.. Marignane Airport (France):

Mr. Chesneau, fireman, saw a round luminous object slowly coming down and called the control tower to report it. When he came out again, the object had disappeared (Guieu).

290 4 January 1954 2100 MARIGNANE AIRPORT (FRANCE)

M. Chesneau, fireman, saw a round luminous object slowly coming down and called the tower to report it. When he came out again the object had disappeared.

Alleged traces were found.

(M 123; Guieu I, 40)

Case 662: January 4th, 1954. FRANCE

Marignane Airport. Time: 21.00 Witness saw a round object landing, trace found. (MUFOB)

THE FILE

Thirty years ago
the flying saucers

[...]

January 4, 1954:

In Marignane, Mr. Chesneau, fireman of his state, guard in a hangar of the airport, see a a craft going down at moderate speed in direction of the strip. It landed then took off. When the day came, 15 cm length bent rods were discovered)... The affair was covered up!

[...]

Gérard LE MAOUT.

04/01/1954 Marignane

Around 9 p.m., firefighter Chesneau stood guard. Suddenly, coming from the south, he saw a rounded and luminous craft descending slowly towards the runway. The object hit the ground and bounced several times. The witness went to telephone, on his return the craft had disappeared. The next day, one of the investigators returned to the place and he discovered on the runway a hundred metal debris among which several small rods 15cm long, curved at one end and ending at the other end in a small ball a little larger just a ball. Traces of yellow metal, contrasting with the gray color of the whole, suggested that the ball had been brazed.

Then began the corrida of "explanations" and dismissals from service to service.

J. Guieu was able to get his hands on a "copy" of a bent rod. The originals had enormous density. Later, these "elements" were identified with the clappers of goat bells which, as everyone knows, graze many winter nights on the airstrips... This explanation was not the only one, let's say that it was one of the tastiest. (J. Guieu)

In the case of the Marignane rods, the question arises: what happened to the originals? What did they allow to discover? The problem of these "pieces" of "Flying Saucer" is more complex than it seems. We estimate at 99% the proportion of false elements brought by false witnesses in order to accredit false testimonies. But of the remaining 1%, what can we say? More than half is made up of elements whose origin is totally unknown and which the relentless "saucerists" hurry to take as assets. This is the case of the Canadian metal block and the Australian balls. A good quarter is made up of copies or fakes hastily made by the authorities, such as the wrapped stems of Marignane. And the remaining quarter? Well, those who are lucky enough to own an authentic "Flying Saucer" fragment are not going to shout it from the rooftops. They know very well that they could only attract dangerous lusts.

Therefore, the only work and the only deductions that the researcher can make risk bearing on elements as authentic as the letters in Old French written by Vercingetorix. It is not possible to work on such bases. Nevertheless, the situation is good: it makes it possible to establish anti-conclusions which make the simulators find themselves caught in their own trap. Many "merchants of false testimonies" amuse themselves by carrying metal fragments, each one more extra-terrestrial than the other. Allow us to smile, because, to our knowledge, the metallic nature of the "Flying Saucers" has not yet been proven. We are ready to carefully examine all the elements that we will be presented with, but from there to swallow all the snakes which swarm in the false testimonies...

Second "landing" at Marignane?

What made Marignane field "so different?" There were thousands of airfields in the world so why would Marignane in southern France be singled out for two "UFO landings," assuming of course the incidents are true.

The first such "landing" took place back on October 27, 1952 and was supposed to have been witnessed by French custom agent Gabriel Gachignard. It was now the evening of January 4, 1954. At Marignane field the air was cold and there were gusts of wind. The sky was moonless. Outside the great Boussiron Hanger adjacent to the main runway was M. Chesneau on fireguard. The fellow huddled in a corner out of the blasts of chilly air, nonetheless from his position he could still see much of the airfield, and as one can imagine he was easily distracted from his boring duty by aircraft traffic. The time was 9:00 p.m. and no aircraft was expected, yet out of the southern sky came a luminous ball that approached the airstrip at moderate velocity. The "plane" touched down, bounced a few times, and stopped. Astonished, M. Chesneau ran to a phone to alert the control tower and Marignane field's Officer-in-charge.

An immediate search of the area in the darkness discovered no "airplane" or anything unusual. The thing, if it had landed, must have departed leaving no trace. With the light of day, however, there was a discovery on the runway. Strange metallic fragments, dense, dark-gray, spheres with six inch stems with curled ends; were scattered about on the tarmac. The stems looked as if they had been subjected to heat, "soldered" onto the spheres. The aforementioned information was gathered by French reporter Constant Vautravers of the newspaper Le Provencal.

Gueiu investigates.

When French UFO investigator Jimmy Gueiu [sic] learned of the "landing," he made numerous inquiries over the phone but didn't get anywhere. People either refused to speak about the supposed incident or referred him to someone else, and those who he was referred to, likewise had nothing to say. It was the all too familar "runaround." It was even denied that UFO witness even existed.

The reporter Vautravers eventually managed to contact Chesneau and set up an interview, but the UFO witness never kept the appointment.

Airport police were questioned by radio reporter Pierre Cordelier, but the lawman brushed off the incident as the "display of an experimental rocket." 26.

[...]

26. Guieu, Jimmy. Flying Saucers Come From Another World. London: Hutchinson, 1956. pp.l40-l43.

Unidentified Aircraft at Marignane Airfield France

Shortly after 2100 hours on January 4, 1954 a round luminous machine, coming from the South, landed at the Marignane airfield In Bouches du Rhone Department. There was only one witness present at the field. That machine disappeared while he was telephoning the control tower. Careful scrutiny of the runway in the morning turned up a few pieces of metallic debris. The witness story was confirmed by that of a Marseilles resident who driving from Arles to Marseilles saw a large, round, reddish fire ball in the sky, but placed the time at 2245 hours.

Other deposits - which remain just as mysterious - are also found at the presumed landing site.

The following cases are French. The first took place on January 4, 1954, in Marseilles. The witness, Mr. Chesneau, was a firefighter at the time. He observed a luminous object of rounded shape, which was posed on one of the runways of the Marseille-Marignane aerodrome. Following this observation, the authorities made an investigation during which it was discovered a hundred metallic debris, just at the place where the strange apparatus had landed. Silence was kept on the nature of this metal.

d/ Metallic pieces in Marseilles on January 4, 1954: "Silence was kept on the nature of this metal". However, I remember reading something about it. An explanation, for example... An effort, look in the old magazines. I'm doing it too and we'll talk again...

On this Day

January 4

[...]

1954 - Mr. Chesneau, a fireman at the Marignane Airport in France, saw a round luminous object slowly coming down and called the control tower to report it. When he came out again, the object had disappeared. (Source: Jimmy Guieu, Les SV Viennent d'un Autre Monde; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, p. 205).

[...]

A large scale investigation by Raoul Foin. Retired teacher, Mr. Raoul Foin, from Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, who is besides a local correspondent for l'Yonne Républicaine, is, it may be said, a UFO expert. Introduced among scientific circles who study these matters, speaker at many conferences and author of a book "Les Mystères qui nous entourent" [the mysteries that surrounds us], published in 1968, M. Raoul Foin is impassioned with those UFOs. He has gathered an extraordinary documentation from which he compiled the series of articles we start publishing today. Whatever the reader's opinion on the subject is, one cannot not be interested in his account, in which abound many puzzling details.

[...]

4th case: It was on January 4, 1954, on the Marseille-Marignane airfield. At about 9 P.M., fireman Chesneau was on survey duty near the Boussiron hangar. He saw, coming from the south, a small ball, which landed on the track, without any noise. Since no airplane was expected, he wanted to phone to the control tower, but the phone call had no answer. Then, the craft must have departed, because he did not see anything anymore. It is only the day after that an investigator discovered numerous metallic debris on the track, among which long rods ending with a sphere, it is not known to whom these debris were handed, nor what their usage may have been. Because, as usual, the authorities covered this incident up, and the journalists' curiosity was carefully avoided by pretending that nothing is known from the case, which was nevertheless reported by the aforementioned Jimmy Guieu.

[...]

On Jan. 4th, 1954, in Marignane Airport, France. Mr. Chesneau, fireman, saw a round luminous object slowly coming down and called the control tower to report it. When he came out again, the object had disappeared.

[... other cases ...]

Other deposits - which are equally mysterious - are also found at the scene of an alleged landing. The following cases are French. The first took place on January 4, 1954, in Marseille. The witness, Mr. Addison, was at the time a firefighter. He observed a bright object with a rounded shape, which was on one of the strips of the Marseille-Marignane airport. Following this observation, the authorities made an investigation in which was discovered a hundred of scrap metal, just where the strange craft had landed. Silence was kept on the nature of the metal.

[... other cases and discussions ...]

January 1954

9 p.m. : At the Marignane airport (France), a fireman sees a round and luminous object going down slowly. He calls the control tower to submit his report. When he comes out of the tower, the object had flown away.

(008) Jan. 4, 1954 - Mr. Chesneau, a fireman at the Marignane Airport in France, saw a round luminous object slowly coming down and called the control tower to report it. When he came out again, the object had disappeared. (Source: Jimmy Guieu, Les SV Viennent d'un Autre Monde; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, p. 205).

4 January 1954. 2100hrs.

MARIGNANE AIRPORT (BOUCHES DU RHONE : FRANCE)

On this cold and moonless night, fire fighter Mr Chesneau was on duty at the Boussiron hangar on the far west of the airport, stood at the entrance to the hanger, when he saw a luminous sphere flying from the south towards the airport at a moderate speed. It landed and bounced up several times. Chesneau phoned the control tower but got no response so went to investigate but found nothing. The next day a number of metallic fragments were found at the site, including stems 15cm long, on the end of which were spheres the size of billiard balls.

• Guieu 1956a p140 citing investigation by Constant Vautravers in Nice-Matin 9 janvier [sic] 1954.

Evaluation - The stems were aircraft ant-statics [six, anti-static] devices.