ALSACAT-1954-10-18-RIQUEWIHR-1
The regional newspaper Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for October 18, 1954, reported that on October 18, 1954, in the afternoon, a flying saucer was spotted in Riquewihr.
Mr. E. C. had seen it first and then several dozen people gathered on the market square and watched the bright object that moved in all directions, to "disappear" half an hour later.
On October 21, 1954, the same newspaper explained that the flying saucer was a jet fighter.
The newspaper said that they had stated earlier that the "flying saucer" had been seen from the town hall square in Riquewihr by about fifty people who watched it "for long"; reading this, a reader from Mittelwihr, Mr C. M., who was doing the harvest at Mr. J. Z., had written to the newspaper that it was actually an F-84 Thunderjet jet fighter.
The newspaper indicates that this negative witness "claims" that the real shapes of the aircraft had been "concealed" by the loops and other maneuvers at high altitude, to which must be added to the sun's reflection on the metallic airplane.
| Date: | October 18, 1954 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Afternoon. |
| Duration: | 30 minutes. |
| First known report date: | October 18, 1954 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, 1 day. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Riquewihr |
| Place: | From the market square near the town hall, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.166 |
| Longitude: | 7.299 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 20 m |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | Several dozens. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 2 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 2 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Adults. |
| Witness(es) types: | ? |
| Reporting channel: | The Regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From the market square near the town hall, UFO in the sky. |
| Visibility conditions: | Day. |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | 1 negative witness F-84 jet fighter plane.? |
| Hynek: | DD |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Probable jet fighter plane. |
[Ref. nh1:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES DU HAUT-RHIN":
Riquewihr: Yesterday afternoon a Flying Saucer was seen above Riquewihr. Mr. E. C. Saw it first. Dozens of people gathered on the market place and found the shiny object that moved in all directions and disappeared half an hour later.
[Ref. nh2:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES DU HAUT-RHIN":
Riquewihr: We reported in the recent days that from the town hall square in Riquewihr, fifty people have observed for a long time the maneuvers of a flying saucer.
Following this article, a reader from Mittelwihr, Mr. C. M., who is picking up the grapes at Mr. J. Z., writes that it was actually a jet fighter of the F84 Thunderjet type. Mr. M. claims that the actual shapes of the aircraft were "concealed" with the loops and other maneuvers at high altitude. In addition there were the sun's reflection on the metal of the aircraft.
[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Christian Valentin indicates that on October 18, 1954, in the afternoon, nearly fifty people saw from the place of the Town Hall of Riquewihr, the evolutions of a shining object which moved in all directions to disappear half an hour later.
According to an inhabitant of Mittelwihr, it was actually a jet interceptor, whose real forms had been blurred by the loops and the operations that it carried out at high altitude.
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that on October 18, 1954, in the Haut-Rhin in Riquewihr, there was a sighting reported in the newspaper Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for Tuesday, October 19, 1954, on page 7 of the bilingual issue:
Riquewihr: Yesterday afternoon a Flying Saucer was seen above Riquewihr. Mr. E. C. Saw it first. Dozens of people gathered on the market place and found the shiny object that moved in all directions and disappeared half an hour later.
Then, Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for Thursday, October 21, 1954, on page 7 of the bilingual issue, informed:
Riquewihr: We reported in the recent days that from the town hall square in Riquewihr, fifty people have observed for a long time the maneuvers of a flying saucer.
Following this article, a reader from Mittelwihr, Mr. C. M., who is picking up the grapes at Mr. J. Z., writes that it was actually a jet fighter of the F84 Thunderjet type. Mr. M. claims that the actual shapes of the aircraft were "concealed" with the loops and other maneuvers at high altitude. In addition there were the sun's reflection on the metal of the aircraft.
Christian Valentin commented that it is regrettable that there is no explicit mention of noise, which would have removed the last doubt.
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Back then, most people were not yet familiar with jet fighter planes manoeuvers in the sky. The reader who reported this interpretation error was probably right.
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Above: the F-84 Thunderjet of the French Air Force on display at the Bourget Air and Space Museum. Pictured in 2014 by this website's author.
Probable jet fighter plane.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 5, 2005 | First published in the France 1954 catalogue. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | June 6, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | April 19, 2014 | Additions [dnh1], [dnh2], [cvn2]. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | September 16, 2015 | First published in the ALSACAT catalogue. |
