The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 2-oct-54-Rians.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In 1958, ufologist Aimé Michel, who was mainly busy showing "alignments" of cases of October 2, 1954, mentioned without more detail that there was an observation on October 2, 1954, in Rians, in the south of France, something moving "to the right" i.e. to the west, at a certain hour between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
In 1993 and 1997, ufologist Jean Sider reported that on October 2, 1954, around 8:00 p.m., in Rians, near Sainte-Solange in the Cher department, a luminous ball was observed during about a quarter of an hour. It went down and left to the right.
He would say that this comes from Mr. Desbois, investigator of the group Lumières Dans La Nuit; who had carried out investigations of verifications on the reports of UFO reports of the year 1954 in France. Mr. Desbois did not find a trivial explanation.
Finally, in 2017, author Jean de Quercy, in a catalog for the Cher department, indicated a source of the time: the newspaper Le Berry Républicain for October 5, 1954, on page 3.
This newspaper, he said, indicated that on October 2, 1954, in Rians, around 7 p.m., the young Jean Rousseau, in the garden of his parents, saw a luminous craft which, having made a turn on itself, rose at high speed.
[Ref. brn1:] NEWSPAPER "LE BERRY REPUBLICAIN":
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On Friday, around 7:30 p.m., Mrs. Rousselet, residing at the "Moulin de l'Oie" farm in La Guerche, was closing the shutters of her house when she saw a large luminous ball in the sky, reddish in color, which at times took the shape of a cigar. In the middle of the ball, she noticed what appeared to be small filaments. This event was also witnessed by Mrs. Villepreux, the lock keeper at the "L'Oie" lock.
On Sunday, around 2 a.m., young Marcel Debrade, returning from Bourges by train and heading to his parents' home at the "Geal" estate, also observed a flying saucer on the "Claurie" hill. This time, however, the object resembled a coffee cup and was greenish in color.
The young man specified that the road and fields were illuminated, and as soon as the object appeared, everything suddenly plunged into darkness.
On Sunday evening, popular cycling champion Robert Verdenal was returning around 9 p.m. from La Chapelle-Hugon and heading to Grossouvre when, suddenly, a circular shape brightly lit with fiery red glows appeared in the sky ahead of him. The object seemed to hover for a few seconds before suddenly disappearing toward the East. It should be noted that Robert Verdenal was not alone and asserts that he was not experiencing a hallucination.
Two young students from the class of Mr. Chataignier, director of the Vierzon-Bourgneuf school, claim to have seen flying saucers and provided a detailed description to their director. First, young Alain Baumgarten, living in La Petite Loeuf, along with some friends, was stunned when he spotted an object moving through the sky on Thursday morning around 10:30 a.m.
Then, on Friday evening around 7 p.m., young Jean Rousseau saw a luminous object in his parents' garden, which spun around itself before rapidly ascending into the sky.
Should we place much importance on what imaginative children say at their age? They saw something, and to them, that’s all that matters!
On Saturday around 8 p.m., Mrs. Estève Michel, Mr. Jean Bureau, Mr. Gustave Gadoin, and several other residents of Rians observed for about 15 minutes a luminous ball in the direction of Sainte-Solange, which slowly descended vertically. Then, near the horizon, it moved to the right before disappearing. The observers cannot confirm that it was a flying saucer, but given how frequently these luminous objects are reported, it would be easy to label it as such. Will we soon get the explanation everyone is waiting for?
Last Sunday, Mr. Jules Prunget, secretary of the town hall in Pommiers (Indre), was in his garden when his attention was drawn to a very bright yellow-orange object moving from north to south at high speed about 600 meters above the ground. Mrs. Nicaud, who was standing at her door, also saw this strange sight. She described the object as cigar-shaped, about three meters long, with the front larger than the back. No noise or smoke came from it. It was visible for only a few seconds.
The sky over Château-Chinon, according to testimony from five people whose sincerity is beyond doubt, was crossed by one of these mysterious luminous objects now widely known as flying saucers.
The strange sighting occurred around 9 p.m.. This time, the object appeared as an oval-shaped luminous patch seemingly moving at a very high altitude in the sky. At one point, the patch seemed to split into two parts, and each part began spinning rapidly, changing colors several times. Then, it faded, and after a few minutes, the luminous patch reappeared, split again, and started spinning. This phenomenon repeated itself five times before the eyes of the five witnesses.
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
Aimé Michel reports that there was a sighting on October 2, 1954, in Rians, France, in the South-West, moving "to the right" i.e. the West, at some hour between 7 and 8 p.m.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
Saturday October 2 [, 1954]
[...other cases...]
: Rians (Cher): vertical cylinder
[...other cases...]
[Ref. jve5:] JACQUES VALLEE:
| 192 | -002.79700 | 47.18700 | 02 | 10 | 1954 | RIANS | F | 151 | C** | 170 |
[Ref. pis1:] "PHENOMENES INCONNUS" UFOLOGY BULLETIN:
This ufology bulletin indicated that there was a case on October 2, 1954, in Rions [sic]; which was a part of a "network" of aligned cases of that day, in their opinion.
[Ref. pis2:] "PHENOMENES INCONNUS" UFOLOGY BULLETIN:
In this ufology bulletin, Alain Barbe stated that the cases of October 2, 1954, including that of Rions [sic], formed a geometrical shape including parallel lines with growing spacing, which, he thought, could not cased by mere chance. He published this diagram, comprizing however only 8 of the 61 cases or more for that date:
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He also published a second map with more cases (but far from the 61 cases), including that of Rians:
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[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":
On October 2, 1954, at about 08:00 p.m., in Rians, near Sainte-Solange in the department of Cher, a luminous ball is observed for about a quarter of an hour. It goes down then towards the right.
[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:
In his 1997 book on the 1954 French flap, UFO researcher and author Jean Sider notes that Mr. Desbois, investigator member of the private ufology group Lumières Dans la Nuit, who has done counter-investigations on a number of French UFO reports of the year 1954, has investigated a case of October 2, 1954, at Rians in the Cher département, and that he could not find any trivial explanation of that case.
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
3916: 1954/10/02 20:00 1 2:37:20 E 47:11:20 N 3333 WEU FRN CHR 6:9
RIANS,18,FR:SVRL OBS:LUMn BALL ^ SLOWLY SW/TOWN:>W TWRD VATAN:/LDLN#319p26
Ref# 49 MICHEL,Aime: FS & STRAIGHT LINE TH: Page No. 112 : FARMLANDS
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates in his database that in the Cher in Rians on October 2, 1954 at 20:00 hours, "a luminous ball is observed during approximately a quarter of an hour. It goes down then goes towards the right."
The source is indicated to be my website at "http://ufologie.net" - (its old home page URL).
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
This database recorded the case 4 times:
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19541002 | 02.10.1954 | Rians | France | 19.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541002 | 02.10.1954 | Rians | France | 19.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541002 | 02.10.1954 | Rians | France | 19.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541002 | 02.10.1954 | Rians | France | 19.00 | NL |
[Ref. jqy1:] JEAN DE QUERCY:
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18/12 - 1954 on 02 October - Rians
Around 7:00 p.m. the young Jean Rousseau, who, in his parents' garden, saw a luminous machine which, after having made a turn on itself, rose at high speed.
(Source: Le Berry Républicain for 05 October 1954 p.3)
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What would have happened is broken down into different sources that seem to not to tell the same story - there may be two different cases here.
Therefore, I stay with a poorly documented "unidentified" case.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Rians, Cher, ball, luminous, descent, duration
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 7, 2004 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 27, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [aml1], [lcn1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | June 20, 2010 | Addition [jve5]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | January 2, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | October 4, 2019 | Additions [pis1], [pis2], [lhh1], [jqy1], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet." |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | April 4, 2022 | Addition [gqy1]. |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | March 25, 2025 | Addition [brn1]. |
