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October 14, 1954, La Bastidonne, Vaucluse:

Reference for this case: 14-Oct-54-La-Bastidonne.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The regional newspaper Le Provençal for October 15, 1954, reported that the mayor of Bastidonne, in the Vaucluse, saw a flying saucer.

Francis Jausserand, mayor of this village, came to the newspaper describe the phenomenon, saying that it was at 6 p.m., when he was coming back from the grapes harvest, and that it was a very brilliant disc moving horizontally between the hills of Meyrargues and Luberon, leaving a bright red trail.

It stopped almost above the village of La Bastidonne for about 20 seconds, then, without any noise or trace, "disappeared at a vertiginous speed vertically."

Others had confirmed to the newspaper that they had also observed the luminous object from different places, the details and the timing coinciding perfectly. The newspaper speaks of it as a luminous disc, elongated, of a thickness of about 1 meter.

Reports:

[Ref. lpl1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PROVENCAL":

Scan.

An red and yellow AERIAL OVOID observed on Arles

Arles (C.P.).

Arles also had its "unidentified object" - not to call it flying saucer.

A group of residents of Arles living in the end of the Sadi-Carnot avenue, near the channel of Arles to Bouc, witnessed, indeed, Wednesday evening, around 7 p.m., the maneuvers of an object in the sky.

According to the statements which were made to us, in particular by Mrs. Paul Forbaud and her son Adrien, a kind of luminous ball was rather high in the sky in direction of Sainte-Maries-de-la-Mer. This ball started to whirl before going down slowly on the horizon.

This descent lasted several minutes since the observers had time to go get a binocular in order to better observe the phenomenon.

The binoculars made it possible to see an object of ovoid form then, the higher part appearing of dark red color, whereas the lower part was paler, vaguely yellowish.

Mrs. Forbaud specified to us that she had already observed, three weeks ago, a kind of disc placed vertically and emitting yellow, green and red gleams.

THE MAYOR OF BASTIDONNE (VAUCLUSE) SAW "ONE"

Pertuis (C.P.).

A luminous disc, of lengthened form, a thickness of 1 meter approximately, was clearly seen in the area of Pertuis yesterday afternoon, and particularly in La Bastidonne.

Mr. Francis Jausserand, mayor of this village, came in person to describe the phenomenon to us:

"It was 6 p.m. when I returned from harvesting grapee. A very shining disc moving horizontally between the hills of Meyrargues and Luberon, leaving a sharp reddish trail, stopped almost above the village of La Bastidonne and stayed motionless during about twenty seconds, then, without any noise nor trace, disappeared at a vertiginous speed, vertically."

This testimony of the mayor of Bastidonne was confirmed to us by other people who observed the luminous object from different places, the details and the schedule perfectly coinciding.

LUMINOUS SPHERE IN THE SKY OF THE LOW ALPS

Volonne (C.P.).

Yesterday at the end of the afternoon, residents of Volonne occupied gathering the grapes, saw a large reddish ball whirling on itself at a very fast pace.

In addition, hundreds of people working at the Pechiney factory of Saint-Auban, saw around 18 hours a brilliant sphere moving at a very high pace; it appeared flanked of two large pipes on the side.

FLYING CIGAR IN THE MALLEMORT SKY

Mallemort (C.P.).

Yesterday evening around 18 hours, three people worthy of faith saw a flying cigar. It was motionless above the mounts of Luberon, in direction of Mérindol.

It resembled a long spindle of color aluminum. It was motionless in the sky.

A few minutes afterwards, it disappeared at very high speed, leaving a luminous trail behind him.

These three people: Green Marcel, Armenico Paul and Espagnet Francois, are serious people and this confirms the statements of several others, which would have seen flying saucers since a few days in the sky of Mallemort.

"A ball, from which came out a red and green flame" in the sky of Avignon

Avignon (C.P.).

Yesterday, around 06:10 p.m., a plasterer-painter from Avignon, working for the services of the historic buildings, Mr. Blanc, returned from his work on a scooter. He had one of his comrades on his vehicle.

Arriving in street J.-H. Fabre, he saw moving towards the North-East an object difficult to identify pass above his head.

A few moments later, he told us: "I saw a ball passing at low altitude, silently, at a speed which seemed, as much as I could appreciate for lack of reference mark for the distances, about four times that of a jet. The ball released a kind of flame, spindle-shaped, of green and red color, long about twice its diameter."

Explanations:

Map.

Probably the 06:13 p.m. meteor.

I was able to verify that the mayor of La Bastidonne was really Francis Jausserand at the time of the sighting.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

La Bastidonne, Vaucluse, disc, luminous, elongated, thickness, Francis Jausserand, mayor, brilliant, horizontally, Meyrargues, Luberon, trail, reddish, stop, fast, silent, duration

Sources:

[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.

Document history:

Version: Created/Changed by: Date: Change Description:
1.0 Patrick Gross June 26, 2010 First published.
1.1 Patrick Gross April 18, 2019 Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Probably the 06:15 p.m. meteor.".

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