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URECAT - UFO Related Entities Catalog

October 24, 1954, Saint-Etienne de Baïgorry, Pyrénées-Atlantique, France, someone:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

French ufologist and author Jean Sider discussed in 1997 a letter that the newspaper L'Eclair-Pyrénées for November 3, 1954, claims to be that of one of its readers who tells of his encounter with a craft. Jean Sider notes that there are many chances that the story is entirely invented when one considers the description in this letter.

The reader who introduces himself as a shepherd says that on Sunday, October 24, 1954, towards 03:00 p.m., he saw a strange display whereas he was on the mountain of Moumboa, near Saint-Etienne de Baïgorry, keeping his sheep on a small pass at 800 meters of altitude.

He writes that he has seen two men looking on the side opposed to his, of which he thought that they were excursionists, but he soon saw between them and him, at about fifty meters, a craft of the dimension of a large shell, from three to four meters, a diameter of a little more than one meter, in lying position.

He writes that he did not dare to approach this apparatus; which was of coffee with milk color. In its center, there was a cabin, and at the two ends, were distinguished a multitude of small propellers similar to pine cones. At the back end, the broadest end, was a bent tripod. After a while, the two men approached the machine; which they put upright on the tripod. The writer supposes that it was to be of an extremely lightweight plastic so that this was possible.

He says to have noticed no portholes. One of the men opened a narrow door and both individuals disappeared in the cabin. Without noise, the two groups of propellers started to turn, but in opposite direction (one compared to the other, supposes Jean Sider). The machine took off vertically on a hundred meters, then disappeared quickly towards the north.

The "witness" says that the two men were indeed Earthmen, of Caucasian race, of a size between 1.70 meters and 1.75 meters.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. js1] JEAN SIDER:

French ufologist and author Jean Sider discusses a letter that the newspaper L'Eclair-Pyrenees for November 3, 1954, claims to be that of one of its readers who tells of his encounter with a craft. Jean Sider notes that there are many chances that the story is entirely invented when one considers the description in this letter:

The reader who introduces himself as a shepherd says that on Sunday, October 24, 1954, towards 03:00 p.m., he saw a strange display whereas he was on the mountain of Moumboa, keeping his sheep on a small pass at 800 meters of altitude.

He writes that he has seen two men looking on the side opposed to his, of which he thought that they were excursionists, but he soon saw between them and him, at about fifty meters, a craft of the dimension of a large shell, from three to four meters, a diameter of a little more than one meter, in lying position.

He writes that he did not dare to approach this apparatus; which was of coffee with milk color. In its center, there was a cabin, and at the two ends, were distinguished a multitude of small propellers similar to pine cones. At the back end, the broadest end, was a bent tripod. After a while, the two men approached the machine; which they put upright on the tripod. The writer supposes that it was to be of an extremely lightweight plastic so that this was possible.

He says to have noticed no portholes. One of the men opened a narrow door and both individuals disappeared in the cabin. Without noise, the two groups of propellers started to turn, but in opposite direction (one compared to the other, supposes Jean Sider). The machine took off vertically on a hundred meters, then disappeared quickly towards the north.

The "witness" says that the two men were indeed Earthmen, of Caucasian race, of a size between 1 meter 70 and 1 meter 75.

[Ref. ed1:] :

Emmanuel Dehlinger included this case is a list of cases supposed to demonstrate by statistics that UFOs are hoaxes organized by some military personal so that people believe in aliens being on Earth.

He specifies that the case is dubious because it is anonymous, anf that not luminous pehnomeon was reported, and thus the case is eliminated from his statistics.

He indicates that the source is LDLN N.324 page 35.

[Ref. ki1:] FABRICE ET DANIEL KIRCHER:

The authors indicate that on October 24, 1954 in "Saint-Eteinne de Balgorry" in the Basque Country at 15 hours, a shepherd kept his sheep on the mountain of Moumboa and saw there two men whom he mistook for excursionnists, but it saw then between them and him a machine similar to a large shell from three to four meters length and approximately a meter of diameter, in lying position. The characters were humanoids of white race from 1.70 to 1.75 meters.

There were at its two ends numerous small propellers, a cabin in the center, and at the back, a kind of tripod.

At the end of a moment they approached the machine, put it upright on the tripod, entered there by a narrow door, the two groups of propellers started to rotate without noise but not in the same direction, and the machine took off vertically, rose at a hundred meters, before disappearing towards the north.

The two authors comments on that both character put the UFO upright, and are astonished, "What was it then made of? in celluloid?"

[Ref. ta1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

[Ref. ni1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

[Ref. ub1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

This database recorded this case twice:

[Ref. pr2:] PETER ROGERSON - "INTCAT":

Note: The source reference "Gross URECAT" is my file as it appears in my CE3 catalogue URECAT; the file content is the same as this page of my France 1954 catalogue. No link is provided and my content is not properly reflected.

Points to consider:

There is of course zero credibility in the story. In France, in the heat of the rash of flying saucers and occupants alleged sighting reports in Fall 1954, a number of such "reader's letters" claim to report such event; in which the saucer occupants were generally described as totally human. This is because at this time in France, the notion that they were "secret craft" possibly from some communist country was viewed more "rational" than the notion that they were "Martians".

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Probable Hoax or journalistic hoax.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] ? Article dans le journal régional L'Eclair-Pyrénées, Pau, France, page 2, November 3, 1954.
• [---] ? Ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #324, November / December 1993.
• [js1] * "Le Dossier 1954 Et L'Imposture Rationaliste", book by Jean Sider, Ramuel publisher, France, pp 217-218, 1997.
• [ed1] * "OVNIS - L'Armée Démasquée - Annexe B", electronic document by Emmanuel Dehlinger, France, page 342, circa 2002, at www.ovnis.atfreeweb.com/ovnidata.pdf
• [ed1] * "OVNIS - L'Armée Démasquée - Annexe C", electronic document by Emmanuel Dehlinger, France, page 342, circa 2002, at www.ovnis.atfreeweb.com/ovnistat.pdf
• [ki1] * "Ce Qu'ils Ont Vu à l'Intérieur des Soucoupes Volantes", book by Daniel and Fabrice Kircher, Le Temps Présent publisher, France, page 120, 2008.
• [ta1] * "1954: October Sightings", catalog on the UFO website Think About It, USA, not dated, found 2014, at http://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/8-1954-october-sightings
• [ni1] * List on The NICAP Website, USA, found in 2014, at http://www.nicap.org/reports/1954_ufocat.htm
• [ub1] * Online database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, found in 2016, at ufodatenbank.de
• [pr2] * "INTCAT 1954", catalogue compiled by Peter Rogerson, U-K., circa 2016, at https://intcat.blogspot.com/search?q=1954

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This page was last updated on December 23, 2018.