The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 4-Nov-54-Plaissan.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The local newspaper L'Eclaireur Méridional for November 6, 1954, reported on page 3 that on November 4, 1954, around 9:00 p.m., Roger Pasturel, going to work, saw in the vineyard of Alfred Périer, 500 meters from the village of Plaissan at a place called "Le Grand Champ", on the Clermont road, a craft of spherical shape of a bright red color.
Mr. Pasturel parked his motorcycle on the side of the road and moved in the direction of the object, but it disappeared before he could reach it.
[Ref. eml1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ECLAIREUR MERIDIONAL":
Thursday evening, at about 09:00 P.M., Mr. Roger Pasturel, going to his work, saw at 500 meters from the village, in the locality of Le Grand Champ, road of Clermont, in the vine of Mr. Alfred Périer, a machine of spherical shape of a bright red. Mr. Pasturel parked his motorcycle on the edge of the road and advanced towards the object, but it disappeared before he could reach it.
[Ref. jsr2] JEAN SIDER:
The author indicates that on November 4, 1954. at 09:00 p.m., in Plaisan [sic] in the Hérault, Mr. Roger Pasture}, going to his work, saw in the vineyard of Mr. Alfred Périer, at 500 meters of the village at the location called "Le Grand Champ", Clermont road, a spherical craft of a bright red color. Mr. Pasturel put his motorcycle on the side of the road and moved in the direction of the object, but it disappeared before he could reach it.
Jean Sider indicates that the source is L'Eclaireur Méridional, of Montpellier, for November 6, 1954, on page 3.
He wondered what is to understand by "disappeared" because there is no mention of takeoff.
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
4358: 1954/11/04 21:00 1 3:31:20 E 43:34:00 N 3333 WEU FRN HRL 6:6
D2 nr PLAISSAN,FR:1 OBS:BRILL.RED SPHERE/FIELD:GONE when OBS ARRIVES:/LDLN#325
Ref#217 Jean SIDER: Le DOSSIER 1954 (2 vol.) Page No. 127 : ROAD+RAILS
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Hérault in Plaissan on November 4, 1954 at 21:00 hours, "the witness drives by motor cycle on the road of Clermont. At the place 'le grand champ' at approximately 500m at the exit of the village, he observes in a vine a bright red spherical object. He puts down his vehicle and tries to join the object, but the latter disappears before he could reach it."
The source is indicated to be my website at http://ufologie.net (this is the old URL of the home page of my website).
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 4 November 1954 at 21:00 in Plaissan D2, France, there was a brilliant red sphere in a field. "Gone when witness gets to site. An object was observed. It moved with a falling-leaf motion. One red ball was observed by one witness on a road for over one minute."
The source is indicated as "Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002."
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The place is on the D 123, road to Clermont-l'Herault; unfortunately no direction of observation is indicated, and 500 meters from Plaissan on this road (heading 315°), we have, in 2018, vineyards on both sides of the road.
The coordinates of Plaissan are 43° 33' 24" North, 3° 31' 35" East.
The Moon was visible at 206° 28' and an elevation of 31° 43', decreasing gibbous phase with 60.2% of its illuminated surface. Mars was visible at 214° 21" and an elevation of 19° 8', with 85.02% of its surface illuminated, an Earth-Mars distance of 152 million km. Mars was visible just a bit to the right of the moon, a little lower than the Moon.
It is therefore possible that the UFO was Mars or a red moon partially masked by clouds. A cloud coming to hiding it completely would have explained the "disappearance" without mention of takeoff that intrigued Jean Sider.
However, the data are too incomplete (no size, direction, elevation, cloud cover information etc.) to get any certainty about an explanation.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Plaissan, Hérault, Roger Pasturel, Alfred Périer, machine, craft, red, round, sphere, bright, red, vine
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | June 16, 2004 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 18, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1], [uda1]. Corrected "Plaisan" to "Plaissan". |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | December 3, 2018 | Addition [lhh1]. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet.". Addition of the Summary. |
