The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: Jour-Mois-54-Rognac.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Provençal of June 27, 1954, reported via their correspondent in Rognac that a case of "parebrisite" had occurred the day before on National Road 113, in the Bellevue district, near Rognac.
Mr. André Canaud, 65 years old, dental surgeon, residing at 108 cours Lieutaud, in Marseille, was driving with his wife in his car when suddenly the car's windshield shattered.
Mr. and Mrs. Canaud stated that at that moment no vehicle had passed or overtaken them, and there were no loose stones on the road.
Only a low-flying airplane was passing nearby, and the motorists felt a sort of vibration in the air at the moment the windshield shattered.
[Ref. lpl1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PROVENCAL":
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Rognac (C.P.)
A "windshield incident" occurred yesterday on National Road 113, in the Bellevue district near Rognac.
Mr. André Canaud, 65, a dental surgeon residing at 108 cours Lieutaud, Marseille, was driving with his wife when suddenly the car's windshield shattered.
Mr. and Mrs. Canaud stated that at that moment no vehicle had passed or overtaken them, and there were no loose gravel on the road.
Only a low-flying airplane was nearby, and the motorists reported feeling an air vibration at the exact moment the windshield broke.
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The windshields "explosions" in 1954, called "window cancer" or "parebrisite" in French, has become an often cited example of "collective illusion" or "mass hysteria". Sociologists and psychologists refer to these incidents in France and in the United States to ensure that "crowds" can easily fall into unfounded collective myths.
And of course, some "skeptical" ufologists explain that the "window cancer" that preceded the wave of "flying saucers" of 1954 proves that the saucers too were only illusions.
None put forward the following point: "collective hysteria" here would in any case concern only the interpretation of the facts, not the facts themselves. And the interpretations were not really "hysterical", they were attempts at rationalization quite understandable and sensible in the context of the time.
All sorts of explanations were advanced at the time for the "window cancer", such as an effect of atomic experiments, Martian activity, or "vandals". In the United States, the police found that the epidemic affected mainly old cars, and it was thought that the windows would explode as a result of their wear.
In the windshield explosions reported in France in 1954, I find "constants": the mention of a light or a flash, blue when the color is mentioned, the lack of sense of the explanations by vandals, Martians, atomic tests, the insistence of the witness(es) that no pebble struck the windshield, the hearing of an explosion sound, the opacity of the window after the explosion.
Some of these characteristics have really no strangeness: an explosion noise is perfectly normal when a windshield breaks. The window becomes opaque because the anti-burst protection layer produced this. The lack of notice of a shock by a pebble or something else can also be explained: the windshield may have been hit and weakened by a hit long before, and then explodes only later when nothing hits it.
I have less ideas about the flash or the light. Is it an illusion caused by the sudden opacity of the glass?
Jimmy Guieu linked this mystery to the extraterrestrials, but few ufologists followed him on this path. The Press did it sometimes, but without claiming this "explanation" was serious.
As for this case, this time without "light", it seems there was a suspicion of an effect from the passing airplane. But for a vibration effect on the car, the plane would have had to fly very low, at ground-skimming level. Perhaps there was something on the road surface causing this vibration?
- Example of windishield cancer news in England in 1954 involving a plane.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Rognac, Bouches-du-Rhône,
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 14, 2025 | First published, [lpl1]. |
