The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: Mid-Oct-54-Narbonne.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In their 1979 book "La Grande Peur Martienne" ("The Great Martian Scare"), the "skeptical" ufologists Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker told that if one must believe the newspaper L'Indépendent, of Perpignan for October 21, 1954, many factory workers of the sulphur plant of Malvési are said to have seen an interplanetary scubbadiver and his fantastic machine, but that fortunately one of the witnesses of these events "was found thanks to the collaboration of the chief of the factory, and stated that it was a hoax, a joke, a masquerade. He said he was surprised that one remembers this story after such a long time."
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The authors indicate that if one must believe "L'Indépendent de Perpignan" for October 21, 1954, many factory workers of the sulphur plant of Malvési are said to have seen an interplanetary diver and his fantastic machine, but that fortunately one of the witnesses of these events was found thanks to the collaboration of the chief of the factory, and stated that it was a hoax, a joke, a masquerade. He said he was surprised that one remembers this story after such a long time.
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Apparently, the only ones who remembered this were... Barthel and Brucker!
The Malvési plant was a sulfur quarry, operated from 1935 to 1954, for the production of sulfur dioxide, mainly intended for use in the Languedoc vineyards.
It is also true that, at least on the 11th, 12th and 13th of October, 1954, the two journalists of the weekly Samedi-Soir Michel Agnelet and Pierre Laforet, who were organizing "displays" of a "Martian and his saucer" with a disguise made of a diving suit precisely, their car, and fireworks, were acting in the area. Their purpose was to verify or prove that the witnesses of the "saucers" were victims of misinterpretations - Unfortunately, it seems that they never published a precise schedule of their activities.
Barthel and Brucker, who do not cite the newspaper article they mention, may well have known that this case was one of these stagings but did not find it useful to specify that...
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Narbonne, Aude, hoax, occupant, diving suit, multiple
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 4, 2010 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | November 21, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet." |
