The GRU and the FSU (Swiss Federation of Ufology) quickly investigated a series of sightings of October 11 and 12, 1977, in Nyon, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland.
The witnesses are the members of a family at a house at 2 kilometers of the center of Nyon, Jura side, already in full country, at approximately 80 meters of the motorway and 80 meters of the little attended railway connecting Nyon to Saint-Cergue. The sight there is very clear from the Alps to the Jura. A power line skirts the motorway. The Prangins airfield is at 3 kilometers and the international airport of Geneva-Cointrin at 25 kilometers, the area is thus frequently flown over by helicopters and planes of all sizes and the witnesses are accustomed to their presence.
The observations started with Mrs. V, of Belgian origin, established in Switzerland for 16 years, housewife, who woke up at approximately 06:00 on October 11 as usual to fix her husband's breakfast - he wakes up around 06:15. Towards 06:20, she saw from the window of the dining room, southern side, a "grain of rice" or a "trout without fins", grey, low on the horizon and on the left of the rising sun, apparently above the Savoy. The silver-colored thing was motionless and its apparent size was 2 or 1.5 times that of the rising sun.
She called her husband René, assembler in sanitary facilities, around 50, who saw the thing but thought that it was a plane, while his wife would insist to the investigators that she was certain that it was not a plane, as she is used to see planes and recognize them as such. What struck her the most was the absence of noise and the extremely slow movement.
The husband remained certain that it was a plane and did not believe anything that his relatives reported later. Irritated at his wife's report, his opposition was noted by the investigators.
At approximately 06:45, he told his wife that she did not look properly and that the object was actually moving. It moved extremely slowly towards their left, circumvented the house while keeping the same apparent size. The husband left for his work.
Their Nathalie daughter, about 13, schoolgirl, also saw the thing, she left for the school at approximately 07:10. Mrs. V then ceased watching to do the housework, whereas the object approached the Jura, on the side of the North-East.
Brigitte woke up at approximately 09:00. Aged 19, Belgian niece of Mrs. V., on holiday at her aunt's, of a modest cultural background but a good observer because she would give to the investigators a precise description of a motorist whom she would meet close to sighting location, she had heard about UFOs at the time of the Belgian flap of 1976, but only by the newspapers. Brigitte then observed the object with binoculars without distinguishing details; the shape was the same, there was no light, no smoke, no sound, no smell and the thing was now on the other side of the house towards Divonne. The thing was then observed also by Mrs. V and a neighbor whom she sought, in order to avoid being called "nutcase." Brigitte saws the thing suddenly split in three parts, whereas she was the alone to look at it as the others were busy with their occupations. These objects now had the appearance of a small cloud or a broad condensation trail with a black spot at an end.
Mrs. V. and the neighbor then came back and saw that the three things moved away one from the other while slipping by in three opposed directions, then met at a speed higher than that of planes. The manoeuvers continued, with reverses of direction and crossings as for a dogfight game or aerial combat simulation. The witnesses then noted a rather strong sulphur odor.
These operations took place on several occasions during the day and up to approximately 05:00 p.m., the witnesses alternating their usual occupations and occasional observations, the phenomenon not being there at certain times. At one time, one of the three objects remained hidden in or behind a small cloud during half an hour, passing there or entering in at high speed without slowing down and not reappearing on the other side. The sky was not very cloudy and the objects passed above the clouds.
About 02:30 p.m. this same day, Mrs. V., Brigitte and Nathalie were worried when they saw a thick column of smoke similar to that of a fire of undergrowth at a precise spot in a nearby maize field. Brigitte took the binoculars and it seems to her that she distinguished a metallic dome which exceeded the field through the smoke.
These three witnesses, very disturbed after the observations of the morning, decided with apprehension to go look from closer. They moved towards the maize field, but Mrs. V. soon fled running, like she never run in her life, in panic.
At one time, Brigitte and Nathalie saw that two farmers were looking up from their tractor, in a field close to the tank. They did not deal at all with their work, their tractor was skidding, but they continued to look at the sky.
Nathalie went until the railroad but made a half-turn by arguing that the cats were following and that they should not get lost. Brigitte continued alone, crossing the railway, going up the ditch, skirting the maize field at the edge of the motorway. There was no smoke any more at this time there, and she noticed that a car had pulled up at the edge of the motorway. Its driver approached and asked her why she was looking up. She summarized the events to him and the man told her that he had seen a similar apparatus in the morning while he stood up, which had remained motionless for half an hour. The driver then resumed his travel.
The investigators think that this motorist undoubtedly stopped after having seen the apparatus in the maize field from the motorway while coming from Geneva. He did not have any other apparent reason to stop, but oddly, he did not go to see more closely. He remained unknown and untraceable, he had been very well described by Brigitte.
Brigitte walked until the end of the field and stopped in amazement as she saw though the plants a being of totally human appearance except the color of his face, who was approximately within 40 meters away. She squatted to observe him. He wore a metallized suit with 5 buttons of the same color, whose various elements were visibly separated. The suit was not tight-fitting, it was loose, "like that of a mechanic ". He also carried a hood, gloves, boots, a metallic belt. He was of normal size, with a greenish skin verging on the blue, only his face being seen, which was oval, with regular features, without particularities, with a slightly curved nose, a normal mouth with visible lips. She could not see whether he had teeth and did not remember to have seen eyebrows. There was nothing weird about his eyes. He carried at the left side, on his belt, an object some 20 centimeters long. The character was motionless, but moved his lips, no sound being perceived.
His apparatus was posed behind him, half hidden by the maize. It was the size of a large limousine and a little more than two meters in height. This "saucer" was topped by a gyratory light similar to the fire of an ambulance, but of green color, twice larger, and rotating faster. The object was of the same metal color as its occupant's suit, completely smooth, it had no doors, neither joints, neither bolts, no asperity of any kind were seen.
Brigitte was terrified by the repelling appearance of the character, she stood and run away. Arrived at the opposite corner of the field, she looked back and sawn the object rising gently and vertically, and she could note it had three cylindrical feet of approximately 50 centimeters each one ending in three small points. The saucer moved away gently towards the west.
Brigitte resumed her runaway and noticed in the passing that the cows were excited. She came back at the house very shocked without have observed the direction taken by the saucer.
The house's dog, usually very quite, started to bark in the night of the 11the, to practically stop barking only three days later.
The next day, October 12, at approximately 05:30 p.m., Brigitte returned to the house from Nyon walking along the road of Saint-Cergue. When she arrived at the level of the wood of Calèves, she saw exactly the same saucer again, this time motionless above a tree at a dozen meters above the ground and approximately a hundred meters away. The feet of the machine were not visible this time, and she could see that the lower part of the machine was perfectly smooth.
She sat down in the grass at the edge of the road and looked at the machine during half an hour. Nothing occurred, and, bored she resumed he walk and went home. During all the time of this sighting and her return of approximately 15 minutes, nobody went by the road, neither by foot, nor by car.
The FSU learned that Mrs. M. had phoned the newspaper Le Journal of Nyon, who tried to get information at the observatory of Sauverny. The latter had an agreement with the Group of Ufology Research (GRU). Their investigators were on the spot the very same evening, whereas the witnesses were still under the shock of emotions, and their narration was confused. The GRU is said to have found traces on the landing the spot, which, to the admission of the investigators, could have been caused by anything, and did not match those that the witnesses later described to the FSU. Although these traces are very doubtful, the FSU was intrigued when Mrs. V, who knows nothing about flying saucers, mentioned a place where the ground was "like if it had been sucked up by a suction cup." The FSU learned that other, unidentified, investigators had visited the witnesses several times, and that some of them had adopted an unpleasant attitude which had irritated the witnesses, which did not prevent them from collaborating with good will and kindness with the FSU investigators on October 26 and on November 2, 1977. The FSU notes that it took them hours to put the accounts in order, because they are not people used to focus in order report facts chronologically and with precision. The FSU found no clues of a hoax, but raises all the same the issue that the saucer located half in the corn field according to Brigitte paradoxically left the maize upright. But as she had advanced only until approximately two or three meters before the end of the field to observe though an opening in the plants, it was difficult to her to perceive the exact position of the object compared to the field. In general, the FSU notes that only contradictions that they could find were in the estimates of durations and dimensions, which are rather flexible in the witnesses minds, and show their weak qualification to correctly evaluate distances and durations.
FSU passed a call to witnesses in the local newspaper, but nobody answered, which the FSU allots to the fear of the ridicule. The radars at the Geneva-Cointrin airport did not detect anything.
According to the newspaper L'Ouest Lémanique, the couple of the neighbors of the V. family managed to observe a saucer topped by a green light that was posed near a maize field, before flying away in two parts which moved away in different directions.
According to the GRU, other sightings occurred in the area, including one on the 10th of October in the evening above the Jura, with four or five large projectors that were seen in the sky.
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[Ref. fs1:] FEDERATION SUISSE D'UFOLOGIE:
The report by the Swiss Federation of Ufology (FSU) described a series of observations of Tuesday October 11 and Wednesday October 12, 1977 in Nyon. Mrs. V, of Belgian origin, established in Switzerland for sixteen years, housewife, woke up on the 11th at approximately 06:00 as usual to prepare her husband's breakfast - he wakes up around 06:15, and towards 06:20 she saw from the window of the dining room, southern side, a "grain of rice" or a "trout without fins" on the horizon and on the left of the rising sun, apparently above the Savoy. The silver-colored thing was motionless and its angular size was 2 or 1.5 times that of the rising sun.
She called her husband René, assembler in sanitary facilities, around 50, who saw the thing but thought that it was a plane, while his wife would insist to the investigators that she was certain that it was not a plane, as she is able to identify them as such since she already traveled by plane several times and often see the planes that go landing at the Geneva-Cointrin airport. She said the thing was completely different from a plane, and that what struck her the most was the absence of noise and the extremely slow movement.
The husband remained certain that it was a plane and did not believe anything that his family reported, he was very annoyed that his wife started to talk about those things, and his hostility caused some problems to some of the investigators.
At approximately 06:45, René V. told his wife that she did not look properly and that the object is moving. It now moved very very slowly towards the left, circumvented the house while remaining at the same apparent distance, i.e. without showing a change in size. The husband left to work, their Nathalie daughter, approximately 13 years, a schoolgirl, not too assiduous but of a sharp mind for her age and who also saw the thing, left for the school at approximately 07:10.
Mrs. V then ceased observing to do the housework, whereas the object approached the Jura, on the side of the North-East.
At approximately 09:00, Brigitte awoke. She was 19, and the Belgian niece of the V's on holiday at her aunts, of a modest cultural background but a good observer because she would give to the investigators a precise description of a motorist whom she would meet close to sighting location. She had heard about UFOs at the time of the Belgian flap of 1976, but only by the newspapers.
Brigitte then observed the object with binoculars without distinguishing details; the shape was the same, it has neither light, neither smoked, neither sound, nor smell and the thing was now on the other side of the house towards Divonne. The thing was then observed also by Mrs. V and a neighbor whom she sought, in order to avoid being called "nutcase."
Brigitte sees the thing suddenly split in three parts, whereas she was the only one to look as the others were busy with their occupations. These objects now had the appearance of a small cloud or a broad condensation trail with a black spot at an end.
Mrs. V and the neighbor then came back and saw that the three things moved away one from the other while slipping by in three opposed directions, then met at a speed higher than that of planes. The manoeuvers continued, with reverses of direction and crossings as for a dogfight game or aerial combat simulation. The witnesses then noted a rather strong sulphur odor.
These operations took place on several occasions during the day and up to approximately 05:00 p.m., the witnesses alternating their usual occupations and occasional observations, the phenomenon not being there at certain times. At one time, one of the three objects remained hidden in or behind a small cloud during half an hour, passing there or entering in at high speed without slowing down and not reappearing on the other side. The sky was not very cloudy and the objects passed above the clouds.
Mrs. V. felt ill at ease because of these observations.
About 02:30 p.m. this same day, Mrs. V., Brigitte and Nathalie were worried when they saw a thick column of smoke similar to that of a fire of undergrowth at a precise spot in a nearby maize field. Brigitte took the binoculars and it seems to her that she distinguished a metallic dome which exceeded the field through the smoke.
These three witnesses were now on the edges of their nerves after the observations of the morning, and decided with apprehension to go look from closer. They moved towards the maize field, but Mrs. V. soon fled running, like she never run in her life, for fright. She laughed nervously when she told this episode to the investigators.
At one time, Brigitte and Nathalie saw that two farmers were looking up from their tractor, in a field close to the tank. They did not deal at all with their work, their tractor was skidding, but they continued to look at the sky.
Nathalie went until the railroad but made a half-turn by arguing that the cats were following and that they should not get lost. Brigitte continued alone, crossing the railway, going up the ditch, skirting the maize field at the edge of the motorway. There was no smoke any more at this time there, and she noticed that a car had pulled up at the edge of the motorway. Its driver approached and asked her why she was looking up. She summarized the events to him and the man told her that he had seen a similar apparatus in the morning while he stood up, which had remained motionless for half an hour. The driver then resumed his travel.
The investigators think that this motorist undoubtedly stopped after having seen the apparatus in the maize field from the motorway while coming from Geneva. He did not have any other apparent reason to stop, but oddly, he did not go to see more closely. He remained unknown and untraceable, he had been very well described by Brigitte.
Brigitte walked until the end of the field and stopped in amazement as she saw though the plants a being of totally human appearance except the color of his face, who was approximately within 40 meters away. She squatted to observe him. He wore a metallized suit with 5 buttons of the same color, whose various elements were visibly separated. The suit was not tight-fitting, it was loose, "like that of a mechanic ". He also carried a hood, gloves, boots, a metallic belt. He was of normal size, with a greenish skin verging on the blue, only his face being seen, which was oval, with regular features, without particularities, with a slightly curved nose, a normal mouth with visible lips. She could not see whether he had teeth and did not remember to have seen eyebrows. There was nothing weird about his eyes. He carried at the left side, on his belt, an object some 20 centimeters long. The character was motionless, but moved his lips, no sound being perceived.
His apparatus was posed behind him, half hidden by the maize. It was the size of a large limousine and a little more than two meters in height. This "saucer" was topped by a gyratory light similar to the fire of an ambulance, but of green color, twice larger, and rotating faster. The object was of the same metal color as its occupant's suit, completely smooth, it had no doors, neither joints, neither bolts, no asperity of any kind were seen.
FSU sketch.
Brigitte was terrified by the repelling appearance of the character, she stood and run away. Arrived at the opposite corner of the field, she looked back and sawn the object rising gently and vertically, and she could note it had three cylindrical feet of approximately 50 centimeters each one ending in three small points. The saucer moved away gently towards the west.
Brigitte's drawing.
Brigitte resumed her runaway and noticed in the passing that the cows were excited. She came back at the house very shocked without have observed the direction taken by the saucer.
The house's dog, usually very quite, started to bark in the night of the 11the, to practically stop barking only three days later.
The next day, October 12, at approximately 05:30 p.m., Brigitte returned to the house from Nyon walking along the road of Saint-Cergue. When she arrived at the level of the wood of Calèves, she saw exactly the same saucer again, this time motionless above a tree at a dozen meters above the ground and approximately a hundred meters away. The feet of the machine were not visible this time, and she could see that the lower part of the machine was perfectly smooth.
She sat down in the grass at the edge of the road and looked at the machine during half an hour. Nothing occurred, and, bored she resumed he walk and went home. During all the time of this sighting and her return of approximately 15 minutes, nobody went by the road, neither by foot, nor by car.
The FSU learned that Mrs. M. had phoned the newspaper Le Journal of Nyon, who tried to get information at the observatory of Sauverny. The latter had an agreement with the Group of Ufology Research (GRU). Their investigators were on the spot the very same evening, whereas the witnesses were still under the shock of emotions, and their narration was confused. The GRU is said to have found traces on the landing the spot, which, to the admission of the investigators, could have been caused by anything, and did not match those that the witnesses later described to the FSU. Although these traces are very doubtful, the FSU was intrigued when Mrs. V, who knows nothing about flying saucers, mentioned a place where the ground was "like if it had been sucked up by a suction cup."
The FSU learned that other, unidentified, investigators had visited the witnesses several times, and that some of them had adopted an unpleasant attitude which had irritated the witnesses, which did not prevent them from collaborating with good will and kindness with the FSU investigators on October 26 and on November 2, 1977. The FSU notes that it took them hours to put the accounts in order, because they are not people used to focus in order report facts chronologically and with precision.
The FSU found no clues of a hoax, but raises all the same the issue that the saucer located half in the corn field according to Brigitte paradoxically left the maize upright. But as she had advanced only until approximately two or three meters before the end of the field to observe though an opening in the plants, it was difficult to her to perceive the exact position of the object compared to the field.
In general, the FSU notes that only contradictions that they could find were in the estimates of durations and dimensions, which are rather flexible in the witnesses minds, and show their weak qualification to correctly evaluate distances and durations. The FSU noted:
"Our relative practice of witnesses strongly encourages us to think that the durations indicated must be divided by about two, and that the dimensions given could vary of a factor 2. However we preserved them just as they were in our report of the events."
The V.'s house is at two kilometers of the center of Nyon, Jura side, already in full country, and at approximately 80 meters of the motorway and 80 meters of the little attended railway connecting Nyon to Saint-Cergue. The sight there is very clear from the Alps to the Jura. A power line skirts the motorway. The Prangins airfield is at 3 kilometers and the international airport of Geneva-Cointrin at 25 kilometers, the area is thus frequently flown over by helicopters and planes of all sizes and the witnesses are accustomed to their presence.
FSU passed a call to witnesses in the local newspaper, but nobody answered, which the FSU allots to the fear of the ridicule. The radars at the Geneva-Cointrin airport did not detect anything.
According to the newspaper L'Ouest Lémanique, the couple of the neighbors of the V. family managed to observe a saucer topped by a green light that was posed near a maize field, before flying away in two parts which moved away in different directions.
According to the GRU, other sightings occurred in the area, including one on the 10th of October in the evening above the Jura, with four or five large projectors that were seen in the sky.
[Note: The above is my synthesis of the FSU investigation report, I encourage the French-speaking readers to consult its original text with more illustrations currently on the GREPI ufology group website indicated in the references.]
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Nyon in the Vaud Canton, Switzerland, on October 11, 1977, at 06:20 a.m., a family living in a farm area watched a metallic object descend silently and head towards the southeast.
Later the object approached again, dividing itself into three separate units. A strange sulfuric smell was noted at the time.
Later at 02:30 p.m. the family sees smoke coming from a nearby cornfield. One of the witnesses, a young girl, goes to investigate and sees a humanoid figure standing at the edge of the cornfield, the being was of normal height, with greenish skin and was wearing a metallic suit with belt, boots and gloves.
It had an object sticking out of his hip area resembling a radio. Behind the figure hovered a metallic domed disc shaped object with three leg-like protrusions.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Bruno Mancusi, Ovni Presence.
Situation plan according to the FSU's situation plan:
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Green: the maize field.
A: House of family V. |
I have a hard time trying to get and opinion on the events, which are on one side quite confused and from obviously ordinary people, not scientists, one the other side quite rich in events, with some amount of strangeness even in the part were I would like to think that it must have been some planes, "probably", or that the saucer and occupant must have been some car, "probably" interpreted as a flying saucer due to excitement. Was Brigitte truthful when she told it took off? Was she not? How could I tell? Was Mr V. right when he thought his family were just looking at a plane, or was he worried enough to just deny "such things"? My feeling is that the FSU investigators did not seem to voice any conclusion for similar reasons.
And as those who have spent hours interrogating the witnesses do not offer some sort of conclusion, I do not see how I could.
From the 70's to now, I must have used that motorway a few dozens times. If I get there again, I will try to spot the locations and have a good look.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | June 29, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Missing possible report by GRU. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 2 | Data | Medium | June 29, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Missing newspaper articles. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Extraterrestrial visitors or confusion.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | June 29, 2007 | Creation, [fs1], [ar1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | June 29, 2007 | First published. |
