The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Ardennais, France, pages 1 and 5, on October 13, 1954.
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If, for the past few days, we have refrained from discussing the "rush" of flying saucers on our planet, and more specifically on our country, it is because the reports we received seemed to stem more from fantasy or hallucination than from objective observation and would not have contributed in any way to shaping the opinion that every French person is currently trying to form about these mysterious occurrences.
On the contrary, a new report from Cairo (as Egypt has also been visited by flying globes) has called everything into question.
Scientists in that country asserted that the appearance of the so-called saucers corresponded to a luminous phenomenon caused by a magnetic storm that has been observed for several days. From there, can it be suggested that all the saucers might be explained this way... But last night, one of the most serious reports yet - the most serious to date - gave new hope to the "saucer believers." Here are the facts:
Captured in the beams of a military searchlight, a shimmering object was seen hovering for a full three hours over Metz.
During the Trade Fair, currently taking place in this city, the Army has set up a radar device and a powerful searchlight, which operate continuously from nightfall. On Monday evening, at around 8:10 p.m., the searchlight detected the presence of a stationary object in the sky. "It looked like a Christmas tree ornament," stated the radar station chief, Commander Cottel, who was soon joined by about fifteen military specialists.
At first, they suspected it might be a weather balloon, and several hypotheses were proposed.
The scientists, initially puzzled, cleaned the lenses and even replaced the carbon in the searchlight. As soon as the searchlight was turned back on, it once again illuminated the luminous globe, whose altitude was estimated to be over 10,000 meters. This globe had a diameter of more than 50 meters and remained visible for three hours.
During this time, the radar set was unable to detect the luminous object, as it did not respond to metallic waves [sic].
Finally, at 11 p.m., the strange globe moved eastward and disappeared.
The general commanding Metz has requested a full report from Commander Cottel.
NANCY. — On the night from Sunday to Monday, the inhabitants of a farm located a few hundred meters from the village of Moncourt
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(Meurthe-et-Moselle) were alarmed by an unusual whistling sound outside. Through the shutters, they distinguished a blinding light that appeared to be fixed on the hillside and soon disappeared, ascending vertically.
On Monday afternoon, searches conducted in the direction indicated by the witnesses led to the discovery of traces of intense scorching on a dirt path. Samples of stones and soil were collected to be analyzed by experts.
