One Sunday of Pentecost situated as of May 30, 1971 by most sources, Mrs. Pierrette Debofle, of Camiers, or Dannes, in her forties, apparently a housewife without prior interest into UFOs, had gone out of her home at 02:05 p.m. to pick up grass for her rabbits behind her house.
According to a source, while looking up, she saw in the direction of the huge chalk quarry whose top culminates at 178 meters and which limits her horizon, a strange dark mass in the shape of a basin turned upside-down, with a dome, of the size of a bulldozer, hovering at a few centimeters above ground-level, at 800 meters of her.
According to another source, at the moment when she came out in her garden, she thought she saw a child in the chalk quarry of the cement factory located 300 meters of her.
As this factory where her husband works is usually deserted during the public holidays, she paid attention to this presence to try to identify this visitor, or according to the other source, continued to collect grass while having an eye at the apparatus.
She managed to realize rather quickly that it was not a child, but of a "dwarf" with a bulky chest for his size and a round head, darker than the body, and surmounted by a kind of shining aureole.
Its walk was weird, since it went while being dandled like a duck and per moment, gave the impression not to touch the ground.
Mrs. Debofle, increasingly intrigued, then see the being bend to pick up something supposed to be a piece of chalk as the place is a chalk quarry with nothing else to pick up, then the being moved while dandling himself towards the apparatus hovering in the quarry.
As there was the bulldozer which is permanently on the spot, she could give by comparison the dimensions of the apparatus: something like 3 meters in diameter and 1.60 in height.
She had the impression that the apparatus did not rest on the ground, but was hovering nearly one meter above the ground. That was then confirmed to her because she saw the dwarf bending down to pass below the machine.
As soon as the being was below, it disappeared inside as if it had been sucked up in it.
Then, there was like a huge flash and the apparatus rose obliquely, before going away "like an arrow and without the least noise."
The observation lasted 10 minutes.
When she recovered from her stupor, Mrs. Debofle ran to alert her husband and her daughter. But in the time to come out of the house, the machine had already disappeared in the clouds.
Her husband Jean however did note the panic of his wife and become convinced that she must have really seen something unusual.
He went with his neighbor Adolphe Formanois and maybe his wife to the quarry in the afternoon, under the rain, but no trace or clue was found there.
Mrs. Debofle told her story to UFO investigators such as René Bazin who wrote a report in March 1972, and Rene Pacaut who talked with the witness, and they think that she did not make up anything.
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[Ref. rp1:] RENE PACAUT:
The author indicates that Mrs. Pierrette Debofle, of Camiers, in her forties and more occupied by the care of her household than by UFO studies, found good reasons to believe that the UFOS are machines piloted by extraterrestrial beings, following an event which marked her life, that she lengthily exposed the author on the place where it happened.
She told him that on the Sunday of Pentecost, at approximately 02:00 p.m., she hade come outside to collect grass for her rabbits, and in the moment when she arrived in her garden, she saw what she thought was a child in the chalk quarry of the cement factory located at 300 meters from her.
As this factory where her husband works is usually deserted during the public holidays, she paid attention to this presence to try to identify this visitor.
She had to realize rather quickly that it was not a child, but a "dwarf" who had a bulky chest for his size and a round head darker than the body and surmounted by some sort of shining aureole.
Its walk was weird, because it walked while being dandled like a duck, and gave per moment the impression not to touch the ground.
Mrs. Debofle, increasingly intrigued, then saw him bend to pick up a piece of chalk of the quarry, then move while dandling himself towards a machine stationed in the quarry.
As there was the bulldozer permanently on the spot, she could give by comparison the dimensions of this machine: it might have been 3 meters in diameter and 1.60 in height.
She had the impression that the machine did not rest on the ground, but was immobilized nearly one meter above the ground. That was then confirmed to her because she saw the dwarf bending down to pass below the machine.
As soon as the being was underneath the machine, it disappeared inside as if it had been sucked into it.
Then there was like an huge flash and the machine rose obliquely, before leaving "as fast as an arrow and without the least noise."
When she recovered from her stupor, Mrs. Debofle run to alert her husband and her daughter. But in the time it took to come out of the house, the machine had already disappeared in the clouds.
Her husband Jean however could note the panic of his wife and thus be convinced that she really had just seen something unusual.
With his neighbor Adolphe Formanois, he went to the quarry, but he could not find a trace there.
Mrs. Debofle told her story to investigators on several occasions since, and the author specifies that all those who heard her, and himself too, agree to say that she could not have invented the details of her observation.
[Ref. fr1:] MICHEL FIGUET ET JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:
The authors indicate that on May 30, 1971, a Pentecost Sunday, at 02:05 p.m., in France, in Dannes, Mrs. Pierrette Debofle cut grass for rabbits in her garden behind her residence.
Looking up, she saw in direction of the huge chalk quarry whose top culminates at 178 meters and which limits her horizon, a strange dark mass in the shape of a basin turned upside down, with a dome, of the size of a bulldozer, suspended a few centimeters above ground-level.
She continued her work while checking on the strange and motionless object with attention since normally no quarryman works on public holidays, and at the end of a long time, a small being with an inordinately large head dandled itself near the machine, while appearing to float rather than to walk.
The being evolved around the object, bent down as if to pick up something, which was undoubtedly a piece of chalk because there is nothing else to pick up over there, then it passed under the object where he disappeared inside like if it had been sucked up.
The machine which was 800 meters away of the witness immediately took off without noise, like an arrow, in direction of the hill, and disappeared in the clouds.
The observation lasted 10 minutes.
Mrs. Debofle went on the site in after midday with her husband and a neighbor, Mr. Formanois, while it rained, and they could not find any clue.
The authors indicate that the source is "LDLN Contact lecteur #1" for March 1972, investigation by Mr. R. Bazin.
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Dannes, Pas-de-Calais, France, on May 30, 1971, at 02:05 p.m., the witness was cutting some grass for her rabbits, and perceived half a mile away, in a large chalk quarry, a dark object like a turned over basin, hovering near the ground.
Near it a small being with a large head was moving about; after about 10 minutes, he was "sucked up" into the object, which at once took off. No traces were found.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Rene Bazin, LDLN March 1972.
[Ref. go1:] GNEOVNI:
GNEOVNI (Groupement Nordiste d'Etude des Objets Volants Non-Identifiés, i.e. Northern Group for the Study of the Unidentified Flying Objects), a non-profit association founded in 1965, investigates and studies observations of unidentified aerial phenomena in the departments of the North and Pas-de-Calais, and forwarded to me a historical presentation of their activity in April 2005, mentioning that on May 30, 1971, the Dannes-Camiers in Pas-de-Calais close encounter of the 3rd kind occurred; which was published in LDLN Contact Lecteurs #1 of March 1972.
The huge chalk quarry is bordering Dannes.
There are very worrying inconsistence in the stories; some might be due to unclear or incomplete reporting by the ufologists, other seem to be inconsistencies of the witness' report per se.
For example, I cannot comprehend how anyone could distinguish that a UFO floats a few centimeters above the ground when it is seen from a distance of 800 meters, nearly a kilometer! But one of the versions says it hovered at 1 meter or so above the ground, the being bending to go under it, thus, the UFO could not have hovered a few centimeters high only.
This is all very confused.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | February 26, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Original investigation by René Bazin not available. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Extraterrestrial visitors of confusion. Insufficient data.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | February 26, 2007 | Creation, [rp1], [fr1], [ar1], [go1]. |
| 0.2 | Patrick Gross | February 26, 200 | 7First published. |
