The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 30-Jun-54-LaManche.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
A curious story was published in the national newspaper France Soir on July 1st, 1954: a mysterious giant airplane was said to be floating over the English Channel, 40 kilometers south of Bournemouth.
From London, on June 30, 1954, according to Agence France Presse, a "giant white-painted transport plane" was reportedly seen floating there over the Channel by the pilot of the Lisbon - London Portuguese aircraft.
Two passengers confirmed the pilot’s statement, while at the Ministry of Aviation, no report of a missing civilian plane was made.
Two frigates and naval helicopters searched the sea at the reported location, but these searches had not yet produced any results.
[Ref. fso1:] NEWSPAPER "FRANCE SOIR":
|
LONDON. -- June 30 (AFP). -- A giant white transport plane was reportedly spotted floating in the English Channel 40 kilometers south of Bournemouth by the pilot of the Portuguese Lisbon-London flight.
Two passengers confirmed the pilot's report. The ministry of Aviation said no civilian aircraft were missing.
Two naval frigates and helicopters are searching the sea at the reported location, but so far the search has yielded no results.
|
The location is at sea between Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in the Manche department and Bournemouth in England.
In the 1990s, French ufologist Joël Mesnard, who was the editor of the ufology journal Lumières Dans la Nuit, argued that there exists a class of ufologically relevant reports describing "crashes" of what witnesses thought to be an aircraft - rightly or wrongly - and the supposed aircraft was never found, with no aircraft loss corresponding to the "crash."
He might have taken note of this strange 1954 case.
So far, I have found no ordinary explanation or follow-up in the same newspaper or other newspapers.
There is indeed something odd about a so-called "giant" plane being seen in the middle of the English Channel without it being identified afterward.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
La Manche, the Channel, airplane, plane, giant, sea, crash, landing, white, pilots, multiple
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | July 17, 2025 | First published, [fso1]. |
