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This article was published in the daily newspaper France Soir, France, on September 12, 1998.
See also the corresponding SEPRA communiqué. The case will be later explained by SEPRA as having been an inflatable ballon with the shape of an animal.
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GRENOBLE
From our correspondant
Serge THOMAS
At the time when Channel Plus TV broadcasts the "Mars Attack" movie and M6 Channel re-runs the "X Files," the case may raise some smiles. Last Sunday, a family of Voreppe, near Grenoble, saw a UFO near their home above a cherry tree. The zillionth testimony on these famous unidentified flying objects? This time, it seem more serious stuff.
The witnesses indeed filmed the scene and scientists came to collect elements on the phenomenon which they describe as "very interesting." Sunday at about 20 hours, the entire small family of Voreppe, the father, the mother, and the three year old child and the grandmother, are about to dine quietly in the garden. Suddenly, at a few meters above the cherry tree of the neighbor, a sort of flying saucer hovers above them. A metal sphere from five to seven meters in diameters, glowing.
Once the first surprise is gone, the father rushes to get his video camera. During two minutes, the UFO remains hovering before setting out again in the direction of Vercors. The members of the family are certain not to have dreamed. And anyway, there is the film which does show a UFO. The father calls the police. Persuaded of serious of the collected testimonies, the police alert the National Center of Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse. Very interested, two scientists of the Service of Expertise on Atmospheric Phenomena (SEPRA) decide to go to Isère to meet the witnesses, and especially to recover the invaluable film.
In two days at Voreppe, they carried out multiple samples collecting in the garden, in particular branches of the cherry tree. And then, Sunday evening, again around 08:00PM, a neighbor says she did note curious interferences on her TV set.
"This is a very serious and very interesting file, confirms Jean-Jacques Vélasco, boss of the SEPRA. To my knowledge, it is the first time in France that a UFO is filmed from that close. Apparently, there is no faking." The witnesses of the overflight refuse for the moment to speak to the press but they are ready to yield the images of the UFO to the best offer.
