The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 17-Aug-54-Saint-Mathurin.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In the 2010's, a Web database of UFO sighting reports in Germany noted that There was a sighting on August 19, 1954, at nighfall in "Le Val Andre" in France.
No source and no detail were given.
In 2025, exploring the French Press, I found out what this was all about. It was never a "flying saucer" or UFO report per se, but a report by witnesses of what they interpreted as a plane crash at sea.
The newspapers Le Bien Public and Franc-Tireur for August 19, 1954, reported that holidaymakers in the village of Saint-Mathurin, near Pléneuf in the Côtes-d'Armor department reported to the local gendarmerie that they had seen, on August 17, 1954, at 8 p.m., a plane fall into the sea about 4 kilometers off the coast, opposite Val André.
The witnesses saif that after the passage of a plane, they noticed black smoke in the sky, followed by a large flame above the waves.
Searches were immediately carried out in the evening by the gendarmeries of Pléneuf and Saint-Brieuc, while the maritime authority sent the region's lifeboats to the scene. But no evidence was found to confirm an aviation accident. The various airfields in the region and in Paris, as well as the flying clubs of Western France reported no aircraft missing.
The newspaper La Liberté du Morbihan for August 20, 1954, reported on the incident, adding that the "investigators do not conceal their skepticism."
The newspaper Franc-Tireur for August 20, 1954, said that the searches carried out on August 19 and 20 in thes morning found no trace of the alleged crashed plane. The official plane Iyam flew over the area for an hour within a 10-kilometer square, but although operating at low altitude, it made no observations that could confirm the hypothesis of an accident, failing to find any oil traces on the fairly rough sea.
The newspaper thus wondered whether the witneses were the victims of a "collective optical illusion".
The La Liberté du Morbihan newspaper for August 21, 1954, added that several fishing boats patrolled in vain on augsut 20, 1954, off Pléneuf, in search of the wreckage of the plane. They said no aircraft disappearance has been reported in the past 48 hours, so that the authorities were convinced that the Pléneuf holidaymakers, Mr. and Mrs. Brûlé, Mr. Bougault, and Mrs. Crolays, were the victims of an optical illusion.
Then this newspaper, on August 22, 1954, published a "refutation of the testimony of the vacationers of Pléneuf". saying:
"It is now certain that no plane sank into the sea off Pléneuf, as four vacationers had claimed on Tuesday evening. The captain of the ship Shellmac, which entered the port of Légué yesterday, has just provided a refutation of these testimonies. His vessel was in the vicinity at that time. He clearly saw the plane flying over the sea and passing through the cloud of smoke escaping from his ship's funnel. The plane then continued on its way."
[Ref. bpc1:] NEWSPAPER "LE BIEN PUBLIC":
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St-Brieuc, August 18. -- Holidaymakers in the village of St-Mathurin, near Pléneuf (Côtes-du-Nord), reported to the local gendarmerie that they had seen, yesterday evening at 8 p.m., a plane fall into the sea about 4 km off the coast, opposite Val André.
They specified that, after the passage of a plane, they noticed black smoke in the sky, followed by a large flame above the waves.
The safety system was immediately set in motion and searches were carried out in the evening by the gendarmeries of Pléneuf and Saint-Brieuc, while the maritime authority sent the region's lifeboats to the scene.
No evidence has been found to confirm that it was indeed an aviation accident. The various airfields in the region and in Paris, as well as the Aero-Clubs of the West, have reported no aircraft missing.
[Ref. ftr1:] NEWSPAPER "FRANC-TIREUR":
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Saint-Brieuc, August 18 (F.T.). -- Searches were undertaken in vain off the coast, opposite Val-André, following statements made by summer visitors from Saint-Mathurin, near Pléneuf, who claim to have seen, yesterday around 8 p.m., a plane fall into the sea, about four kilometers from the shore.
They stated that after the passage of a plane, they noticed black smoke in the sky, followed by a large flame above the waves.
No evidence has been found to confirm that it was indeed an aviation accident, and no aircraft has been reported missing from the airfields of the West or the Paris region.
[Ref. lmn1:] NEWSPAPER "LA LIBERTE DU MORBIHAN":
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SAINT-BRIEUC. -- Vacationers on holiday in the village of Saint-Mathun [sic], near Pléneuf (Côtes-du-Nord), reported to the local gendarmerie that they had seen, at 8 p.m., a plane fall into the sea, about 4 km off the coast, opposite Val André.
They specified that after the passage of a plane, they noticed black smoke in the sky, followed by a large flame above the waves.
The security system was immediately set in motion, and searches were carried out during the evening by the Pléneuf and Saint-Brieuc gendarmeries, while the maritime authorities dispatched the region's lifeboats to the scene.
No evidence was found to confirm that it was indeed an aviation accident. The various airfields in the region and in Paris, as well as the western aero clubs, reported no missing aircraft.
The investigators do not conceal their skepticism.
[Ref. ftr2:] NEWSPAPER "FRANC-TIREUR":
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Rennes, August 19 (F.T.). -- The searches carried out yesterday and this morning to find traces of the plane which, according to several holidaymakers, is said to have crashed into the waves off Pléneuf (Côtes-du-Nord), have proved fruitless.
Yet three summer visitors came to the gendarmes to declare that they too had seen a plane nose-dive into the sea. A collective optical illusion?
Several fishing boats from Pléneuf and Erquy combed the sea without noticing the slightest wreckage.
Meanwhile, coming from Rennes, the official plane Iyam flew over the area for an hour within a 10-kilometer square. Although operating at low altitude, it made no observations that could confirm the hypothesis of an accident. No trace of oil was detected on the fairly rough sea.
The searches, however, continue.
[Ref. lmn2:] NEWSPAPER "LA LIBERTE DU MORBIHAN":
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SAINT-BRIEUC. -- Several fishing boats patrolled in vain yesterday off Pléneuf, in search of the wreckage of the plane that, according to four witnesses, supposedly plunged into the waves on Tuesday evening. Since no aircraft disappearance has been reported in the past 48 hours, the authorities are convinced that the Pléneuf holidaymakers—Mr. and Mrs. Brûlé, Mr. Bougault, and Mrs. Crolays—were the victims of an optical illusion.
[Ref. lmn3:] NEWSPAPER "LA LIBERTE DU MORBIHAN":
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SAINT-BRIEUC. -- It is now certain that no plane sank into the sea off Pléneuf, as four vacationers had claimed on Tuesday evening. The captain of the ship Shellmac, which entered the port of Légué yesterday, has just provided a refutation of these testimonies. His vessel was in the vicinity at that time. He clearly saw the plane flying over the sea and passing through the cloud of smoke escaping from his ship's funnel. The plane then continued on its way.
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19540819 | 19.08.1954 | Le Val Andre | France | Nightfall |
Saint-Mathurin later became a district of Trégomeur.
|
The database [ubk1] seems to be the only ufological source considering this as belonging to ufology.
However, a well-known French ufologist, Joël Mesnard, who directed the ufology magazine Lumières Sans La Nuit, had explained that there existed a particular category of ufological cases that he called "crashes of nothing": testimonies in which witnesses saw a plane crash, while the plane was never identified nor found. He may not have come across this case, or perhaps he saw that it had finally been explained.
Mesnard mentioned this category of cases in the magazine (for example No. 369 of September 1993), then in a lecture in 2011, and later in 2016 in his book "Les apparitions d'Ovnis - Les dossiers non classés".
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Saint-Mathurin, Côtes-d'Armor, Val André, Pléneuf, gendarmes, Brûlé, Bougault, Crolays, sea, smoke, flames, crash, illusion, plane
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 22, 2016 | First published, [ubk1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | September 3, 2025 | Additions [bpc1], [ftr1], [lmn1], [ftr2], [lmn2], [lmn3]. Case day changed from 19 to 17. |
