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The article below was published in the daily newspaper Var-Matin - République, France, on November 29, 1973.
"A kind of searchlight sweeps the hills..."
It seems that for two months the UFO phenomena have been more and more numerous in the South-East of France. Landing at Malmont, passage of unidentified flying objects near Bargemon, strange celestial phenomena, sightings from Callas and Fayence... All these events are indisputably reported by witnesses whose good faith cannot be doubted.
So, are we witnessing a UFO invasion, as was the case four years ago at this time?
This is likely especially since new testimonies have just reached us. They were collected in Figanières by our correspondent Jean Chiarine who reports to us the observations made by several inhabitants of the village.
"For three consecutive days, and again on November 26 from 6:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (i.e. when the sky darkened) several people claimed to have seen a luminous object larger than a star but whose apparent diameter is much smaller than the moon.
It's so bright that it looks like it's emitting radiation. It has also been observed that this object is stable. It turns on and off before disappearing and in binoculars it looks like a natural sponge with very light dots. A sort of black ball, invisible to the naked eye, seems to circulate with disordered movements over the entire surface of the object.
Always observing through binoculars, it was noted that when it is about to disappear, the object emits a kind of light beam that sweeps the hill for a very brief moment, as if it was pointing at the ground a projector."
The people interviewed (and who prefer to remain anonymous) are quite skeptical about the existence of extraterrestrial beings... but they think of a physical phenomenon and would like to have a rational explanation.
UFOs, weather balloons, optical effect due to differences in the density of the gaseous layers?
The various specialized research groups will investigate this case and try to determine the nature of the object which, if it is very bright in the sky, is much less bright as soon as we try to define it nature.
G.P
