The 1954 French flap:

AN EXPLANATION OF THE SAUCERS?

A strange phenomenon observed after
the passage of a jet plane

A "Stratojet" plane which, every day, flies over the Rhône valley, at an altitude of about 10.000 meters, was mistaken, by some people, for a flying saucer.

The President instructor of the Aéro-Club de Vienne immediately dissuaded the overly imaginative witnesses, but a strange phenomenon occurred after the passage of the powerful jet plane. In fact, in the sky, a sorts of parachutes were created, animated by bizarre movements and having the appearance of light veils which soon reached the ground.

Witnesses of the phenomenon seized this material, very soft to the touch and having a little the consistency of rubber. On reaching the ground, it evaporated, probably under the influence of temperature.

One of the witnesses put some of the substance in a box and had it photographed immediately. A few hours later, what remained in this waterproof box had evaporated.

This phenomenon, due to the condensation in the rarefied and cold atmosphere of certain compounds of the fuel of the "Stratojet", can cause white or iridescent formations moving at high speed at high altitude and thus giving rise to more or less fanciful interpretations.

This observation, made above the Vienne airfield is identical to that already reported in its time by a resident of Oloron.

According to a Belgian astronomer,
the saucers would come
of Uranus

Questioned by Belgian journalists, a border astronomer, who asked to remain anonymous, gave the following advice to the questions asked yesterday:

Saucers and other flying objects would be, according to him, the equivalent of our sounding balloons, but more perfected, because they return to their starting place. This starting place is, in his opinion, not the planet Mars, but Uranus, discovered in 1781 and 70 times larger than Earth.

Basing his deductions on testimonies gathered from numerous witnesses, he deduces that the number of these and the diversity of their profession rejects the hypothesis of a collective hallucination.

Returning to Uranus, he specifies that this planet revolves around the sun and seems the most favorable to gather elements of life analogous to ours.

The flying saucer
spitting sparks
in the sky of Bethune
was seen in Douai

We reported yesterday the strange phenomenon observed Monday evening, around 8:50 p.m., in the sky of Bethune.

However, a municipal councilor of Douai, Mrs. Augustine Mocq and her husband, who were walking on rue du Polygone, in Douai, were able to observe the same effects at exactly the same time.

"It was, says Mrs. Mocq, like a huge lightning bolt that lit up the whole neighborhood. Looking up to the sky, I barely had time to notice in the direction of Piers (so the same as for Bethune) like a hair of very luminous rays coming out of a dark mass. But that lasted only a very short time. My husband was able, like me, to make the same observations. It is by reading in "Nord-Matin" the relation of the Bethune phenomenon that I convinced myself it was the same. I am absolutely certain, and my husband too, that I was not the victim of an hallucination, the craft must have had a great lighting power."

It would never occur to anyone in Douai to question these assertions by Mr. and Mrs. Mocq, who are very rightly esteemed in this city.

"Flying plates"
in Indonesia

The Indonesian agency Antara reports that Tuesday evening, around 9 p.m. (local), the people of Bondowoso, in the state of Java, were struck with terror when they saw a white and green disc which passed at high speed above the city and disappeared in half a minute. Witnesses described the object as a large plate with a rotating movement.

This is the second time that the people of Bondowoso have witnessed such a phenomenon. The first appearance of a "strange object" was said to have taken place on July 25, at the same time.

Luminous craft and lightning
near Aire-sur-la-Lys

Finally near Aire-sur-la-Lys, a worker at the Aciéries d'Isbergues saw a luminous craft of round shape descend slowly. When it touched the ground, the witness continued, nearly 2 km away from me a lightning bolt lit up the sky. Many residents have confirmed that they saw not the bolide, but the sky lit up. As for the object that fell, there is no trace of it.

October 18, [1954]

? [= unknown hour]: Douai (Nord): (meteor?)