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October 2, 1954, Poncey-sur-l'Ignon, Côte-d'Or:

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

Reports:

[Ref. bre1:] NEWSPAPER "LA BOURGOGNE REPUBLICAINE":

Scan.

A MYSTERIOUS CRAFT
landed, Monday evening
in Poncey-sur-L'Ignon (Côte-d'Or)

One of the witnesses assigns it the shape of a cigar

Very clear landing marks
have been found

(FROM OUR SPECIAL ENVOY CHARLES GARREAU)

From her bedroom window, Mrs. Thérèse Fourneret shows me the meadow stretching out at the bottom of a valley.

"It is there, to the right of the plum tree that I saw the thing. Distraught, I fled to my neighbor's, Mrs. Bouiller, taking my little Yves..."

In her haste, Mme Fourneret left the shutter and windows wide open; she barely took care to lock the door behind her.

The "thing" is indeed a strange apparition which surprised Mrs. Fourneret, a sympathetic young woman of 23, as she closed her shutters, Monday evening, around 8 a.m.

She lives with her husband in a house adjoining the asbestos factory in Poncey-sur-l'Ignon, where Mr. Fourneret works. The factory is extending

Continued on page 10, under the title
CRAFT

[Photo caption 1:] "It is above the wood that I saw the strange phenomenon", Mrs. Gainet explains, who, with her husband, her daughter and many neighbors, had seen on Saturday, a cylindrical luminous object.

Inset: Mr. François Bouiller, who saw the "cigar" on Monday as it flew off.

[Photo caption 2:] Mrs. Thérèse Fourneret shows the traces left by the craft where it landed. A surface of one square meter was stripped. On the edges of the imprint, the earth has been sucked under the grass, as shown by the position of our collaborator's hand. (Photo B. R.)

Scan.

CRAFT

between the two wooded slopes of the hills, a few hundred meters from the village.

Monday evening, Mrs. Fourneret was alone. She was getting ready to put her toddler to bed, and opened the window.

What she saw nailed her on the spot.

At about twenty meters, a luminous body was swinging gently in the air at the height of the plum tree, as if it was preparing to land.

Its dimensions? "About three meters in diameter," Mrs. Fourneret told me.

That's all the precision she can give. She hardly remembers that the object was of an orange-yellow color, dimly illuminating the foliage of the nearby plum tree.

For an hour, Mrs. Fourneret and Mrs. Bouiller remained locked at home in double lock.

It is then that two neighbors arrived, MM. Girardot and Vincent. Informed, they armed themselves with their rifles and headed for the meadow.

TRACES IN THE EARTH

There was nothing left, neither craft nor marauding "Martian". But, less than three meters from the trunk of the tree, a very fresh imprint attests that Mrs. Fourneret has not been dreaming.

Forming a trapezoid, with quite irregular sides, of about 1.50 m. in height, 0.50 m. at its small base and 0.70 m. to the large, an entire area of the meadow has been stripped, exposing the land. On the fresh scratch, white worms are still stirring, cut in half.

The grass fell in clumps within a radius of three to four meters, following a vaguely ovoid line, which "roughly" follows the shape of the trace.

On its edges, the earth is "excavated" under the grass. It seems that this part of the meadow was sucked up with extraordinary violence, when the craft left, and that the lifted clods fell back in sheaves, like drops from a jet of water. Curious detail: a plant with deep roots remained, alone, in the center of the bare earth.

No traces of burns. No footprints around.

A SECOND WITNESS
SAW THE CRAFT GET AWAY

Yet the craft remained at least half an hour in the same place. Indeed, returning from his work, a young 18-year-old man, François Bouiller saw it as it was gaining altitude, heading south.

"I was terribly scared," young François said to me. "I saw this craft which sped in the night, taking on a greenish yellow hue as it moved away. It looked like a fuselage of a plane without wings."

François returned home, looking defeated. What he saw confirms Mrs. Fourneret's statements.

Other people in the area also saw the cigar when it left.

Alerted, the gendarmes of the Saint-Seine brigade came to carry out an investigation under the direction of Captain Millet, commander of the Semur section.

Photos and samples have been taken.

But will they make it possible to identify the object which in all likelihood landed on Monday evening in the meadow of the factory?

A PREVIOUS
SATURDAY EVENING

Would the region in turn be the target of the strange sky prowlers, which are reported everywhere every day?

We learned, during our investigation, that several reliable people, including the former mayor, Mr. Guainet had seen, on Saturday evening, a strange luminous apparition.

"I was finishing milking the cows, Mrs. Guainet told me. The dogs who usually stay with me had come out a few seconds earlier barking in the direction of the wood. One of them, Grignousse, came back to me, "all wrapped up", as I stepped out into the courtyard.

"A strange fact struck me: the courtyard was softly lit as by the moon in its waning.

"The moon is very odd tonight, I thought. Looking up, I saw, above the wood, a strange luminous craft, a kind of cylinder moving vertically and appearing to fly low. It was moving east at about the speed of a large airplane.

"Terrorized, I called my husband and my daughter Yvette. A neighbor joined us."

All of them saw the extraordinary apparition, the orange mass which was surrounded in green, slowly disappear behind the hill.

Several other residents witnessed the phenomenon, as well as Mr. Boucherot, who was in Pelbrey.

* * *

Mrs. Fourneret, who did not believe in "flying saucers", cannot explain what she saw.

But she hasn't changed her mind.

Mr. and Mrs. Guainet, on the other hand, who did not believe in saucers either, are now convinced of their existence.

Each his own truth!

[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:

Ufologist Aimé Michel found the observation of Poncey starting from his hypothesis of "orthoténie," i.e., his empirical suspicion of alignments; which would not be random for the locations of UFO sightings. As of the day of October 2, among the may observation reports, he listed a dozen observations in France which seemed aligned on lines which seemingly had their intersection at Poncey-Sur-l'Ignon in Burgundy. His friend and neighbor in Paris, the ceramist Pierre Mestre, after having contemplated the observation map displayed on a wall by Aimé Michel, pointed out to him that it would be interesting to know of an UFO has been observed at Poncey for October 2.

Aimé Michel tells that while digging in his files, he indeed found the following sighting.

On Saturday, October 2, at about 08:00 P.M., Mrs. Guainet was finishing milking the cows in her cattle shed. She told:

"The dogs, which at this time usually stay put in the cattle shed at my sides, had come out a few seconds earlier, barking in the direction of the wood. When I came out behind them in the court, an odd fact struck me: the front of the house was gently enlightened as by the Moon at its decline. "The Moon is quite strange this evening," I thought. Looking up, I then saw a sort of large luminous cigar above the wood, apparently at low altitude, which flew silently towards the East at a speed comparable with that of a large plane, and keeping an appreciably vertical position. I called my husband and my daughter Yvette. A neighbor came out too. We all saw the enormous object disappearing behind the hill, always flying in straight line at a moderate speed."

Michel adds that the display had been seen by other inhabitants from other locations in the village, but that the observation had passed unnoticed because of the more sensational case of October 4 in the same village.

[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:

Scan.

October 2 [, 1954]

[... Other cases...]

08:00 p.m.: Poncey-sur-l'Ignon (6 km NNW ins from Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye, Côte-d'Or): almost vertical luminous cigar

[... Other cases...]

[Ref. ldl1:] "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT" UFOLOGY MAGAZINE:

Editor's note. - The four straight lines are about the network of October 2, 1954. The first includes the places of: Jeumont, Dijon, Louhans, Morestel (On this straight line are also located: Chevigny en Valière (on 10/14/54), and Le Pin (on 9/16/54). The second includes the places of Poncey-Pellerey, Bourg (on this straight line are also located: Meursanges (on 10/14/54). The third includes the places of Saint-Brieuc, Saint-Paulien (on this straight line are also located: Angers (on 9/1/54). The fourth includes the places of Aiguillon, Avignon (on this straight line is also located: Fontaine de Vaucluse (on 10/14/54).

[Ref. jve5:] JACQUES VALLEE:

197 -004.76181 47.49750 02 10 1954 19 40 1 PONCEY L IGNON CDO F 11 2 C** 176

[Ref. cpr1:] CLAUDE POHER, UFO RESEARCH GROUP "GEPA":

In 1968-1969, before the official GEPAN ufology effort started, its future head Dr Claude Poher was a member of the unofficial GEPA ufology group, and gathered a computer coded listing of more than 700 UFO reports on which multiple factors statistical computation could be run. In the file were a number of 1954 French UFO reports, among those this one.

For readability, a decoded interpretation of the data is provided here under the original 80 character encoded string. Decoding was done according to the original indications, the code number and its generic meaning is given. Please not that the generic meaning of each code is a predefined category, not the real specific details of the case. For example, if the main witness' age was 33, the coding would result in a number "3" which corresponds to a category "Adult from 21 to 59 years."

Original code:0622550210195419401JA413201000001301020320B0000000000000000000000000000000000000
Location:Poncey sur l Ignon (Cote dor) [sic] - France
Case number:0622
Source code:55
Nature of the source:Reports from official French sources: Police, Gendarmerie, Army, Pilots
Day:02
Month:10
Year:1954
Hours:19
Minutes:40
Type of Time:1 = local time
Number of witnesses:4 = 4
Main witness named:1 = name(s) indicated
Main witness age:3 = Adult from 21 to 59 years
Main witness occupation:2 = farmer, docker, navy, housekeeper
Official investigation:1 = an official investigation was made
Weather:0 = no indication
Duration:0 = no indication
Minimal distance witness - phenomenon:0 = no indication
Method of observation:0 = no indication
Number of "objects" observed simultaneously:01 = 1
Shape of the "object" (terminology of witness(es)):3 = cigar, cylinder, rocket
Dimensions of the phenomenon:0102 = 1 meters by 2 meters
Color of the observed phenomenon:03 = orange, fire color
Luminosity of the phenomenon:2 = luminous, fluorescent
Lights or projectors on the phenomenon:0 = no indication
Moving speed of the phenomenon:B = Speed is compared with an airplane speed
Acceleration of the phenomenon:0 = no indication
Trajectory of the phenomenon:0 = no indication
Sounds perceived during observation:0 = no indication
Maximum angular height of observation (horizon = 0°):0 = no indication
Nature of the landing place:0 = no indication
Number of contact points with ground:0 = no indication
Traces of landing:0 = no indication
Observation of "occupants":0 = no indication
Height of the occupants observed:00 = no indication
Garment of the occupants:00 = no indication
Garment:0 = no indication
General behavior of "occupants":0 = no indication
Interaction of "occupants" with witness:0 = no indication
Head, hair:0 = no indication
Voice, breathing, chin:0 = no indication
Skin:0 = no indication
Eyes:0 = no indication
Mouth:0 = no indication
Various details:0 = no indication
Thermal effects:0 = no indication
Luminous effects:0 = no indication
Magnetic effect (or electromagnetic):0 = no indication
Odor perceived by witness:0 = no indication
Physiological effects on the witness(es):0 = no indication
Psychological effect on the witness(es):0 = no indication
Effects on animals:0 = no indication
Other effects reported:0 = no indication
Nebulosity:0 = no indication
Oscillations, emission of matter:0 = no indication
Spin, formation flight:0 = no indication
Immediate disappearance:0 = no indication
Halo surrounding the phenomenon:0 = no indication
Interaction witness / phenomenon (complement to the other rubrics):0 = no indication
Drawing or photo:0 = no indication
Structural details observed:0 = no indication

[Ref. pis1:] "PHENOMENES INCONNUS" UFOLOGY BULLETIN:

This ufology bulletin indicated that there was a case on October 2, 1954, in Poncey; which was a part of a "network" of aligned cases of that day, in their opinion.

[Ref. pis2:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "PHENOMENES INCONNUS":

In this ufology bulletin, Alain Barbe assured that the cases on October 2, 1954, including that of Poncey, formed a geometric figure comprising parallel lines with regularly increasing spacing, which according to him could not be due to chance. He published this pattern, however, comprising only 8 of 61 or more cases from that day:

He published yet a second map with more cases (but far from the 61 cases), notably that of Poncey:

[Ref. gcn2:] GORDON CREIGHTON:

42. Poncey-sur-l'Ignon, France - October 2, 1954, 8:00 p.m.

Mrs. Guainet was milking her cows in the barn when her dogs, who usually stayed by her side, rushed in the direction of the woods, barking. She followed them and then saw a large luminous cigar-shaped craft flying low.

Ref.: Aimé Michel: Flying Saucers and the Straight Line Mystery, p. 109.

[Ref. gal1:] CHARLES GARREAU AND RAYMOND LAVIER:

Charles Garreau notes that Commander Viala and Captain Millet, of the gendarmerie, the air police force, the intelligence service of the Chief of Staff of the 1st Air Area came to investigate in turn into the landing of October 4, 1954 in Poncey-sur-l'Ignon, and that it revealed another sighting two days before, that of a luminous craft in the shape of an "oil barrel" which had flown over the village while following a trajectory parallel with the road from Dijon to Troyes.

[Ref. gab1:] JEAN GIRAUD:

Jean Giraud indicates that the "cloud cigar" is one of the most interesting elements of the "flying saucers" phenomenon and that it was observed inter alia in "Ponçay sur l'Ignon [sic] on October 2, 1954.

[Ref. fru1:] MICHEL FIGUET AND JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:

The two authors indicate that in Poncey-sur-L'Ignon in the Côte d'Or, on October 2, 1954 at 19:40, the witnesses were Mathilde Gainait, aged 52, farmer, and Marie-Louise Mugneret, aged 41, without profession.

A large luminous cylinder 80 cm in diameter on 1.50 meters height was observed, it was of red color on all its surface and radiated like a green reflection all around. It was seen moving at low altitude at the speed of an ordinary plane per Mrs. Gainait.

It was seen by Mrs. Mugneret as a "soccer ball" of the color of an ordinary but more orange bulb.

Mrs. Gainait left a stable where she had just milked her cows when she noticed it as being an orange luminous object of cylindrical form which moved at a low altitude. She returned home, alerted her daughter, her husband, and her daughter alerted Mrs. Mugneret, a neighbor.

They all saw itmoving away towards the south at a speed which appeared very fast to Mrs. Mugneret.

The authors indicate that the sources are their own file and an investigation by the Saint-Seine-L'Abbaye Gendarmerie squad.

[Ref. via3:] "VIMANA 21" UFOLOGY MAGAZINE:

This magazine listed this case:

54 10 02 07:40 p.m. CE1 Poncey sur l'Ignon

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

Dogs hear UFO?

A big cigar-shaped object soared low over the countryside near Poncey-sur-l'Ignon, France on October 2nd. It was about 8:00 p.m.

In the area was a Mrs. Guainet who was doing her farm chores. Accompanied by the family dogs, Nine. Guainet went about her work milking the cows and didn't noticed anything until the hounds ran towards the woods, baying in excitement for some unknown reason. The woman dashed after the animals and saw the cause of the dogs' agitation. Coming into view was a huge, illuminated spindle. 18. Apparently the dogs heard the UFO before it became visible.

[Ref. jca1:] JACQUES COSTAGLIOLA:

The author indicates that on October 2, 1954, in the evening, a large luminous green cigar flew over in Poncey-sur-l'Ignon in Burgundy.

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":

3914: 1954/10/02 19:40 8 4:45:40 E 47:30:00 N 3333 WEU FRN CDO 6:9

PONCEY-sur-l'IGNON,FR:MANY:1.5M SLNT CYL>S:DOGS RUN+BAY:/r109p109+/FSR v16#3

Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 108 : FARMLANDS

[Ref. goe1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

Belgian ufologist Godelieve van Overmeire notes in her catalogue that in France, in 1954, October 2, in Poncey sur Lignon, Mathilde Gainait comes out of the stable between 19:40 and 19:45 and sees a large cylinder 80 cm in diameter by a 1,50m height, of orange color, with a green reflection around, moving in vertical position at low altitude. She calls her husband, her son, her daughter and a neighbor. For Mrs. Mugneret, Co-witness, it is like a soccer ball of the color of an ordinary but more orange bulb.

The source is indicated as M. Figuet / J.L. Ruchon: "Ovni, Premier dossier complet..." Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979, p. 107 and 108,109.

[Ref. lbp1:] NEWSPAPER "LE BIEN PUBLIC:":

The article of the newspaper Le Bien Public, of Dijon, Côte d'Or, headlined "The first UFOs seen in Poncey-Sur-l'Ignon 46 years ago. Can it be believed?", from October 22, 2000, has this extract in relation to this case:

"On Saturday, October 2, 1954, at about 07:40 p.m, a mysterious craft was seen in Poncey-Sur-l'Ignon by Mrs. Gainait [Guainet]. While coming out of the cattle shed where she had just milked her cows, she sees the farmyard lit by an orange flying cylinder surrounded by a pale square of light green. She calls her husband, her daughter Yvette and a neighbor, Mrs. Marie Mugneret. All three have looked the cylinder moving during ten minutes approximately, and disappear silently in the direction of Chanceaux."

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:

Luc Chastan indicates in his database that in the Côte d'Or in Poncey sur l'Ignon on October 2, 1954, at 19:40 hours, a woman "is milking the cows when suddenly the dogs which were beside her come out rushing of the cattle shed and start to bark in direction of a wood. She then comes out and notes that the front of the house is enlightened as by the Moon. She then looks up and sees above the wood a vast luminous cigar which flew in silence at low altitude at a speed comparable with that of a large plane. The object kept a vertical position. The woman calls her husband, her daughter and a neighbor comes out too. The 4 witnesses observed the object disappear behind the hill. The object left towards the East. It was of orange color and its size was of 1m by 2m which was in fact a huge object."

The sources are indicated as "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... by Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979" and "M.O.C. by Michel Aimé ** Arthaud 1958".

[Ref. djn2:] DONALD JONHSON:

Donald Johnson indicates that Aimé Michel found that on September 2, 1954 nine multi-point straight lines of French UFO sightings intersected at Poncey, France, and at such intersections, "cloud cigars" were seen.

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

*Oct. 2, 1954 - At 8:00 p.m. in Poncey-sur-Lignon and the region of Cote-d'Or, France several persons observed a huge cigar-shaped luminous object that flew silently to the east. (Source: Michel Figuet & Jean-Louis Ruchon, OVNI: Le premier dossier complet des rencontres rapprochees en France, p. 107).

[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

This database managed to record this same case 8 times instead of one:

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 Poncey France Evening NL
19541002 02.10.1954 Poncey Ignon France 20.00 NL
19541002 02.10.1954 Poncey Ignon France 20.00 NL
19541002 02.10.1954 Poncey Ignon France 19.40
19541002 02.10.1954 Poncey Ignon France 19.40 NL
19541002 02.10.1954 Poncey Ignon France 20.00 NL
19541002 02.10.1954 Poncey France 19.40 NL
19541002 02.10.1954 Poncey-sur-Lignon France

Explanations:

Map.

Not looked for yet.

Poncey-Sur-l'Ignon is a small village of the department of Côte-d'Or, in the area of Burgundy, and had approximately 140 inhabitants at the time of the facts.

In 1959, Charles A. Maney, in the continuation of a discussion on UFOs carried through in Akron (Ohio), U.S.A., and using the maps raised by Aimé Michel, evoked the following possibility:

"The map n.° 7, established by Aimé Michel, which holds thirty points of observations for the 2nd of October 1954, shows a infinity of lines, with nine ortothenical lines that cross on Poncey, a little village in the northeast of the center of France. And, one more time, as Aimé Michel noticed, a great "luminous cigar" was observed in the intersection, at Poncey, on the evening of October 2. An organized program of exploration by extraterrestrial intelligence seems to be a reasonable interpretation of such an extraordinary geometric circumstance."

Keywords:

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

Poncey, Poncey-Sur-l'Ignon, Côte-d'Or, Guainet, Yvette Guainet, Gainait, Yvette Gainait, Marie Mugneret, orange, green, cigar, cylinder, luminous, hovering, multiple, dog, dogs

Sources:

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

Document history:

Version: Created/Changed by: Date: Change Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross April 19, 2004 First published.
1.0 Patrick Gross February 27, 2009 Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [goe1], [lcn1].
1.1 Patrick Gross February 11, 2010 Addition [jca1].
1.2 Patrick Gross February 28, 2010 Addition [djn2].
1.3 Patrick Gross June 20, 2010 Addition [jve5].
1.4 Patrick Gross October 9, 2014 Addition [ta1].
1.5 Patrick Gross October 17, 2016 Addition [fa1].
1.6 Patrick Gross November 3, 2016 Additions [lgs1], [ubk1].
1.7 Patrick Gross December 7, 2016 Addition [gab1].
1.8 Patrick Gross February 3, 2021 Additions [bre1], [ldl1], [pis1], [pis2], [lhh1].
1.9 Patrick Gross November 27, 2021 Addition [gqy1].
2.0 Patrick Gross March 23, 2022 Addition [gcn2].

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