Incident · 19 October 1954 · Radar station, Doullens, Somme, France
Soldiers at the Doullens radar station watch a disc hover under the clouds
Also known as Doullens 1954, Doullens radar station UFO
In the October 1954 French UFO wave, soldiers on night duty at the radar station of Doullens in the Somme watched a coloured light emerge from low cloud, stop dead overhead for several minutes and leave at high speed; the radar was not running that night. Three military witnesses gave accounts that differ in detail but agree on the stop and the speed. GEIPAN classifies the case D: strange, of medium consistency, though old.
Source: GEIPAN (CNES), case 1954-10-09217, classified D (unexplained)
Facts and claims
- documented Between 1.30 and 1.40 am on 19 October 1954 several soldiers of the Doullens radar station (a private, a corporal and a sergeant; the radar was not operating that night) watched a luminous phenomenon under a continuous cloud layer about 1,000 m up. Source: cnes-geipan.fr (archived)
- documented The sentry saw a green light come out of the clouds and cross the sky in half a second, changing to orange then dull red; it then stopped dead for two to three minutes at about 60° elevation, long enough for him to alert his superiors, before leaving at high speed the way it came. Source: cnes-geipan.fr (archived)
- claimed To the sergeant it was a disc seen from below, its light changing colour about every five seconds, from a pale green to orange and yellow; GEIPAN estimates that at the assumed height it was about a kilometre away and 15 to 20 m across. Source: cnes-geipan.fr (archived)
- documented GEIPAN considered the Moon, close to a bright Jupiter that night, an aircraft and a helicopter, but found the colour changes, the long stop and the very fast movements hard to reconcile with them, and classified the case D. Source: cnes-geipan.fr (archived)
Connected files
Organizations
- GEIPAN (CNES, France) (investigated by)
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