The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Méridional, France, page 8, on September 19, 1954.
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ROME. -- A mysterious machine crossed Friday afternoon the sky of Rome. It was observed during forty minutes by the observation station of the military command of the Ciampino airfield. According to information given by the airfield, it is an apparatus " having the shape "of a half-cigar" flying at a reduced speed at approximately 1.200 m. of altitude.
A trail of luminous smoke was released from its narrower end. While following the moves of the machine, the observation station of Ciampino noted that it made at one time a "fall" of 400 meters to immediately take again altitude while passing from the horizontal to the vertical position. At the time when the machine moved away towards the sea, the Ciampino airfield announced its presence to the military control station of Practica di Mare, at about thirty kilometers from Rome, which succeeded in "picking it up" on their radar and following it during about twenty minutes.
The radar reportedly announced the presence of an antenna in the center of the broadest part of the "half-cigar". The observatory of Monte Mario (Rome) excluded that it can be a bolide, no celestial body having crossed the sky of Rome during the day of yesterday. The presence of the machine was noticed at 04:45 p.m. (G.M.T.) and it disappeared in north-western direction at 18:28 p.m..
