This article was published in the daily newspaper La Voix du Nord, France, page 3, on March 20, 1974.
|
Here is a new part to the file of the Unidentified flying objects, poured in by a family of Libercourt, close to Carvia, who lives on Ringeval street, at the southern edge of the agglomeration.
During approximately 90 minutes, from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., Mr. André Catenne, aged 35, his wife, their 15 year old daughter and one of their sons, aged 10, were the witnesses of several luminous phenomena that were enough to puzzle them.
Their balance and their common sense, as well as the simultaneity of their observations hardly lets place for doubt about the sincerity and the reality of these visions, more especially as their account coincides rather well on certain points with the precise details collected in other previous similar cases.
It was thus approximately 10 p.m. Monday, while her husband looked at a movie on the third TV channel, the children being in bed, Mrs. Catenne came out and had her glance attracted by an intense luminous point, rather high towards the west of the sky, going back and forth, which could certainly not be taken for a satellite or a star, which move more regularly and in a straight flight.
Coming outside in his turn, Mr. Catenne found the thing weird enough to wish to observe it from the window of his bedroom, on the first floor of the dwelling.
In the passing, the girl and one of the sons also stood up and looked at it. It is Miss Catenne who, looking right in front of her, then discovered the strangest: much nearer, low on the horizon, at the hight of the top of a thicket located at a rather short distance, three reddish luminous points scintillated without appearing to be moving. They then undertook, after a few seconds, a highly accelerated rotation, to the point of quickly becoming a round mass of a strong luminous intensity. The "ball" then rose slowly, seemed to go away at full speed in a broad turn towards the witnesses - who felt some fear of that on the moment - then disappeared towards the west at an amazing speed, without any perceptible noise.
Mrs. Catenne, who had stayed remained in her yard and standing on a garden table, had not seen the "takeoff", but she had the time to see, in the square of sky accessible at her sight, this "ball" pass by, which she estimated to be of the relative size of a plate.
At about the same moment, a luminous whitish trail, very short, similar to a shooting star, had appeared.
Thereafter, only the first phenomenon continued.
Mechanic in a factory of Carvin, Mr. Catenne who knew during the combat of Algeria the diurnal and nocturnal presence of the planes and who knows how those of the airport of Lesquin can look like when they cross the area, is, on his part, adamant: it cannot be an aicraft flying such as those that we know...
