The article below was published in the daily newspaper France-Soir, Paris, France, on September 21, 1952.
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The Air Ministry opens an investigation to try to elucidate the mystery
(From our permanent special correspondent A. De SEGONZAC)
LONDON, September 20. (By telephone.)
A flying saucer took part in the "Mainbrace" drill. It's official... An RAF communiqué has revealed it. The news was transmitted to the Air Minister this morning by the headquarters of the "Coastal Command", responsible for the air protection of the British coasts and waters.
The saucer in question was sighted by officers and men at the Topcliffe base in Yorkshire. Airmen were refuelling two four-engined "Shakleton" aircraft which had just returned from operations. Their attention was attracted by a twin-engined "Météore" [sic, "Meteor"] jet which was approaching the airfield at an altitude of 3,000 meters. Suddenly, to their great surprise, they saw a round, silvery, shiny object following the aircraft at a distance of about three miles.
This happened at 7.32pm yesterday morning. The object was moving relatively slowly, and seemed to follow the "Meteor" in all its movements. When the latter began its descent, then began a turn, the object did the same with a long swinging movement, like a pendulum. When the plane veered one last time to get closer to the ground where it was going to land, the object began to spin abruptly on itself like a top, then suddenly moved away towards the west, at an incredible speed, a bit like a shooting star, to finally turn towards the South-East.
The witnesses say they have never seen any known flying machine acting in such a way. The turn, they would say, had lasted about twenty seconds. Two of the officers, captains, reported the incident to the officer of [...]. The message reached the Air Ministry, after following the normal channel.
In the underground operations room of the "Costal Command", a [...] was immediately placed on the vast operations map where all the movements of the aircraft are noted, and a file headed "Flying saucer discovered in motion" was opened...
The Air Ministry, which has never admitted the existence of flying saucers and has always maintained that it would not believe in them until the day when a flying saucer was officially seen by R.A.F. observers, explained with great embarrassment this morning, through a bearer of [...] that an official inquiry must be opened to try to find a solution to the mystery.
However, an official spokesman for the R.A.F. declined to specify the importance attached to the incident by the air force.
According to an R.A.F. officer, it could be a smoke ring caused by a jet engine which, after a temporary shutdown, suddenly started up again. This ring, carried by the wind and sparkling in the sun, suggested a flying saucer.
The Air Ministry said it could be a weather balloon released daily from several points in the [...]
LONDON, September 30 (U.P.). -- It is announced that yesterday an American press photographer, Wallace Litwin, who was on board the American aircraft carrier "Franklin-Roosevelt", saw a white disk moving in the sky and monitoring the NATO fleet.
According to Wallace Litwin, who was able to take three color photographs of the "flying saucer", it was moving rapidly.
