The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: Oct-54-Yvetot.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
A press clipping that reached me without reference other than "Oct. 1954" and "Yvetot" reported that a "mysterious craft" had crossed the skies of the region:
There were "two loud bangs", "a luminous globe", it was around 4 p.m. and the witness was a "trustworthy" lady who "went about her business."
She had "suddenly" noticed "a curious craft in the shape of a luminous globe, which was moving at a vertiginous speed, having the sound of an ordinary plane, leaving behind a strong trail of smoke, crossing the firmament of West to Northwest" and "disappeared after a few minutes all of a sudden."
The newspaper suspected that it was probably a meteor.
[Ref. prs1] UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER:
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Two strong detonations... a luminous sphere... A certain day of last week, around 4 p.m., a lady - worthy of faith - was busy with her work, when she suddenly saw a weird machine having the shape of a luminous sphere, which moved at a vertiginous speed, with the noise of an ordinary plane, leaving behind a strong trail of smoke, crossing the heavens from the West to the North-West.
The machine disappeared after a few minutes all of a sudden.
An aerolite probably... but at these flying saucers times, you never know.
Possibly meteor or probable jet plane.
(In France, the first jet plane sonic boom occurred on February 4,1953.)
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(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Yvetot, Seine-Maritime, anonymous, single, trail, explosion, ball, luminous, fast, noise, plane, smoke
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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1.0 | Patrick Gross | October 21, 2011 | First published. |
1.1 | Patrick Gross | April 5, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. In the Explanations, addition of the paragraph "(In France, the first jet plane sonic boom..." |