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The 1954 French flap:

The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.

September 2, 1954, the Atlantic Ocean:

Reference for this case: 2-Sep-54-Atlantic.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

Included by ufologists in their collection, a clipping from the regional newspaper Le Nouveau Nord Maritime, on page 5, September 3, 1954, headlined that "An unidentified craft falls into the sea off Brittany".

It was reported from Saint-Nazaire on October 2, 1954, that Radio-Saint-Nazaire had received a message from the trawler "Henri-Joseph", indicating that it had been overflown by a white plane, presumably a small plane, which fell to the sea 3 minutes later.

The trawler immediately went to the spot but found neither survivors nor any wreckage.

The accident site would be located at 17° 40' North and 48° 45' West, which is offshore from Brittany.

The newspaper said that "in authorized circles" one wondered if it were not "rather falling of remote controlled devices, in tests."

Reports:

[Ref. nmm1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU NORD MARITIME":

An unidentified craft falls into the sea off Brittany

Saint-Nazaire, 2. - Radio-St-Nazaire received a message from the trawler "Henri-Joseph", indicating that it had been overflown by a white plane, presumably a small plane, which, three minutes later, fell into the sea. The trawler immediately went to the place but found no survivors and no wreckage.

The accident site would be located at 17 degrees 40 North and 48 degrees 45 West, off the coast of Brittany.

Bringing this information closer to the alleged disappearance of an airplane off the Croisir, fifteen days ago, one wonders, in authorized circles, if it is not rather a fall from remote-controlled craft, in tests.

Explanations:

First of all, here is why this appears in a ufology catalog, since this would seem in reality to be a case of an airplane that fell into the water:

The article was found by a French ufologist, "proponent" at least at the time, exploring the press and he included it in his collection.
The article was then forwarded to me by another French, "skeptical", ufologist.
Another French ufologist, Joël Mesnard, in the years 1970-2000, considered that there was a phenomenon of "crashes of nothing"; which he described as observations of some aircraft of craft which seems to crash but without letting any trace. This would be part of the lot according to his criteria, but was not listed by Joël Mesnard.

Let's see the place: the coordinates given by the newspaper are obviously badly written: "17 degrees 40 North and 48 degrees 45 West" would put the place in the Atlantic just 1200 km east of Guadeloupe and Martinique!

I think it should actually read, 48° 45' North, 17° 40' West, that is:

The nearest land is Ireland, 624 km away; this excludes a small plane, unless the pilot had completely lost all notion of location and had decided to perish by running out of fuel.

Meteors are sometimes interpreted as falling planes; it could have been the case with this affair about which I found no other information so far.

Keywords:

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

Atlantic, Saint-Nazaire, Henri-Joseph, trawler, radio, plane, small plane, fall, crash, sea, ocean, white, machine, remote-controlled, ship

Sources:

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

[nnm1] Article in the regional newspaper Le Nouveau Nord Maritime, France, page 5, September 3, 1954.

Document history:

Version:	Created/Changed by:	Date:	Change Description:
1.0	Patrick Gross	February 13, 2020	First published.

This page was last updated on February 13, 2020.