The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 27-sep-54-Buttes-Chaumont2.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The newspaper Le Parisien for September 28, 1954, reported they received three phone calls the evening before at about 10 p.m., reporting the passage of a luminous disk on Paris.
Moments after the first call, Mr. Thibaut, who lives at 78, avenue Secrétan, confirmed to the newspaper what the 1st witness had told, saying:
"- Is it a flying saucer? I would not swear it, but it was a luminous disc which, after a short stop above the Buttes-Chaumont, sped towards Montmartre."
However, in 1993, in the ufology magazine UFOmania, an unsigned "correction" stated that, according to a letter received from Mr. Thibault on November 24, 1992, the entire story was false, as the latter was not in Paris on September 27, 1954, but in Dax. It was "a journalist from France-Soir or Le Parisien Libéré, in need of sensation," who had invented his testimony. He concluded that "UFOs do not exist" and that he "regrets that such nonsense continues to wreak havoc on public opinion."
[Ref. lpn1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PARISIEN":
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Several of our readers took the trouble to call us last night, around 10 o'clock, to tell us about an observation that had moved them deeply.
It was Mr. Ilias, 18 rue David-d'Angers, who first informed us:
"I was making a little tour with my wife," he told us, when we saw a luminous craft, a bit like a neon-lit disk passing over the Buttes-Chaumont. It stopped for five or six seconds, then it set off again at full speed in the east-north direction."
Moments later, Mr. Thibaut, who lives at 78, avenue Secrétan, confirmed to us the words of Mr. Ilias:
- Is it a flying saucer? I would not swear it, but it was a luminous disc which, after a short stop above the Buttes-Chaumont, sped towards Montmartre.
And, in Montmartre, Mr. Georges Chapty, who lives at 36, rue Jouffroy, saw, too, luminous "craft".
- I saw it arrive from the east of Paris, it stopped a short moment above the Sacré-Coeur, then it left again at full speed without changing course - that is to say in the direction north northwest.
It should be noted that our volunteer correspondents are careful not to say that they saw a flying saucer. But they agree on the direction, the speed and the luminosity of the mysterious craft.
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
According to the French ufologist Aimé Michel, on September 27, 1954, at about 10 p.m., Mr. Thibault, who resides at the 78, avenue Secrétan in Paris, sees a luminous disc coming in the sky, which stops for a few seconds above Buttes-Chaumont, then leaves at fast speed in the direction of the Northwest.
[Ref. gep1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "GEPO":
| 09/27/54 | (22) | Montmartre F | neon | 000C2 |
[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:
Paris. 27 septembre
[... other cases in the Paris area...]
A M. Thibault, who lived at 78 Avenue Secretan made a report that was identical to M. Ilias' - except for the direction the UFO departed, naming a northwest course instead of one due north. 142
The source "142" is given as: "Michel, Aime. Flying saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery. p.86."
[Ref. ufa1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "UFOMANIA":
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Correction: "(...) Another witness, Mr. Thibault, 78 Avenue Secrétan, essentially confirms the previous account: same time, same luminous disc, rapid arrival, a few seconds stop over the Buttes-Chaumont, departure at high speed. But Mr. Thibault does not indicate exactly the same direction of departure: northwest instead of north. (...)"
This passage from the book by the late Aimé Michel, one of the very first "saucerologists" to whom we owe much (*), is entirely incorrect for the simple reason that Mr. Thibault was not in Paris that day (27/09/54) but in Dax. According to a letter I received from him on 24/11/92, he was the victim of a "journalist from France-Soir or Le Parisien Libéré in need of copy." He continues: "I regret that such nonsense continues to wreak havoc in public opinion.
UFOs do not exist. Those who claim they do are either swindlers or naïve." Etc. Clearly, the information is from a very unreliable source concerning this case. This is due to the fact that Aimé Michel could not verify all the data contained in the press. It is therefore important to verify information at its source in order not to make errors of this kind. However, I fully respect the remarkable work of real researchers but I simply want to warn the reader against raw media information. I in no way wish to play into the hands of Barthel and Brucker & Co., who destroy all interesting cases to give value to others that are uninteresting or easily explainable.
(*) Aimé Michel passed away on 28/12/92.
cf. OVNI-Présence n°50.
Bibliography: on the 1954 wave
- "M.O.C" Aimé Michel
- "Face aux Extra-Terrestres", "Alerte dans le ciel" Charles Garreau
- "OVNI: nouvelles preuves", Jean Sider (to be published in 1993)
[Ref. lgs2:] LOREN GROSS:
This US ufologist reproduced the article of Le Parisien ([lpn1]).
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates in his database that in Paris on September 27, 1954 at 22:00 hours "Several witnesses undoubtedly reported the same object" and "Street David-d'Angers around 22 hours, a witness made a small tour with his wife saw a luminous machine similar to a disc lit with neon which arrived in the sky from the East at sharp pace. The witness reports that the luminous disc arrived above Butte-Chaumont where it suddenly stopped during five or six seconds, after that it set out again in the direction of the North."
"Still at about 10 p.m., another witness, residing avenue Secrétan, sees arriving in the sky a luminous disc, which stops a few seconds on Buttes-Chaumont, then goes at a sharp pace in the direction of the North-West. Finally a last witness residing street Jouffroy observed around 22 hours, that an object arrived of the East. It stopped a short moment above the Sacred Coeur, then set out again at full speed in the north-north-west direction."
The source is indicated as: "M.O.C. by Michel Aimé ** Arthaud 1958".
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We have reports from three independent apparently people in Paris:
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("Montmartre" is at the same position than the "Sacré-Coeur").
The distance between Mr. Thibaut and Mr. Ilias home is 1.17 km in a straight line. Mr. Chapty is 5.10 km from Mr. Thibaut.
Unfortunately we do not know exactly where Mr. Ilias was, because he was doing "a little tour". The positions of the other two witnesses are not certain either, maybe they were at home, maybe not.
One can only say that there is no apparent contradiction as to the position they attributed to the "disk".
I obviously thought of a meteor; but I have big doubts:
- Three witnesses, and not one of them mentions any trail.
- Three witnesses and all speak of a stop. I know there may be an illusion of a stop when one follows a meteor with one's eyes, but it depends a lot on the viewing angle. This happens when the meteor seems to "rise" when coming from behind the horizon, and then seems to "accelerate" when approaching.
Here we have Mr. Chapty well in the West of the Buttes-Chaumont, seeing the "disc" arrive from the East of Paris, seeing it stop in the direction of the Sacré-Coeur, which is almost that of Buttes-Chaumont where both other witnesses see it and one of them says it stops; then, says Mr. Chapty, it goes to the north-northwest. He thus has the trajectory of the "disc" parading before his eyes from his right to his left, with perhaps a turn, an angle of view certainly different from that of the two other witnesses. This does not seem to me at all conducive to an illusion of stopping.
This is all very puzzling. But alas, no investigation, no total duration, no elevation angle...
So, if a trivial explanation is needed at all costs, it would be a meteor; but I am hardly convinced.
Update as of October 7, 1954:
With Mr. Thibaut's apparent retraction, the sighting clearly loses what little strangeness it once had.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Buttes-Chaumont, Paris, Thibault, Ilias, Chapty, disc, luminous, stop, fast
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 13, 2004 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 1, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Addition [lcn1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | July 29, 2019 | Additions [lpn1], [lgs2], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet." |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | April 15, 2022 | Additions [lgs1], [gep1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | October 7, 2025 | Addition [ufa1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [ufa1]. Ine the Explanations, addition of the "Update as of October 7, 1954" part. |
