by Dan Wright
On July 30, an Agency source distributed an extensive IFDRB covering reported sightings over a four-month period in western and northern Europe as well as Africa and the Far East. The header of the dispatch read “Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects.” The report chronicled a January 18, 1954, incident in Setif, Algeria, where at 2:30 p.m. inhabitants saw a cigar-shaped vehicle arrive at modest speed from the east. It was emitting a bluish trail. After circling the town for several seconds at high altitude, “it suddenly headed back in the direction of Saint Arnaud at great speed.”9
British Malaya had hosted a double header in March. On the 12th, harbor workers at Swettenham, Kuala Lumpur, sighted a cigar-shaped object at altitude leaving a trail. It moved into the clouds and out of sight. Five days later, residents of three towns in Kuala Lumpur likewise witnessed an airborne cylindrical vehicle without wings.10
In France, on April 15 two residents of Saint Mexant saw an elongated cone shape at high altitude, with red and green lights at the base. A week and a half later on the 26th, a group on a walk near the town of Sare, near the Pyrenees Mountains, saw a wingless cigar shape flying rapidly at about 2,000 meters, headed toward Spain.11
On the 16th of April at 8:00 p.m. in the town of Worcester, South Africa, a man saw what appeared to be a blood-red star in motion. Through a telescope, he detected moving objects around it. “The ‘star’ climbed obliquely at a very fast rate and moved upward with a jerky motion, alternately starting and stopping. It seemed to sway like a balloon and became brighter as it rose. Finally, the object headed north.”12
On May 13 in the Hammerfest Province of northern Norway, a V formation of unknowns was spotted at great height, passing over the town of Kautokeino at very high speed. A deputy constable with binoculars claimed that they were not ordinary airplanes. “He added that they seemed to be red on one side and white on the other and appeared to be rotating.13
Also on the 13th of May, in the morning three persons at different locations in the Norrbotten Province of Sweden observed a “brilliant silver-colored sphere with a tail.” Then, at 12:10 p.m., a sheriff, three deputies, and two clerks at Kautokeino, Norway, observed three objects in a V formation at a low altitude estimated to be 2,000 meters. Binoculars were employed during the 4–5 minutes they were in view. Each unknown was described as “reddish brown on the underside and shiny on the upper, and moving with a rotary motion.” The objects left no trail. The weather at that hour was clear and visibility was unlimited.14
The next day, Norway's Air Command North received numerous calls concerning unknowns over its Finnmark Province. The callers dismissed conventional aircraft or meteorological balloons as identifiers.15
Their accounts were enhanced a few days later by other provincial residents. On or about the 17th of May, back in Norrbotten Province, Sweden, a sphere with an attached meter-long rod and a fiery tail 70–80 meters long was observed low in the sky. It appeared to descend into a forest half a kilometer away, but no trace was found afterward.16 Note: The Eta Aquirids meteor shower peaks on May 5; meteoric fireballs may occur anytime.
On June 18, 1954, a Roman Catholic missionary in the Middle Congo confided he and others sighted an unknown at 7:35 p.m. “A luminous globe, it came from the North toward the Laketi Mission. It suddenly stopped, rose, and dropped, stopped again, gyrated, and seemed to shake. A noise like that of an airplane engine, heard until that moment, also stopped.” Binoculars revealed the object as having a dark mass and light rays of unequal length. After 15 minutes of the seemingly nonsensical lights and movements, the vehicle shot back over the horizon at great speed.17
Near Spjellerup, Sweden, a military-assisted excavation was planned to unearth an object that landed in a field in late 1953, digging a hole 3.5 meters deep but only 25 cm wide. The landowner had pushed a long rod into the hole and located something he determined was metallic.18
Another IFDRB, distributed August 25, 1954, related news accounts from early May to mid-June in Europe and beyond. On May 6 at 11:30 a.m., people in Mersin, Turkey, spotted an unknown over the nearby Taurus Mountains. It appeared to be about 10 meters in length and travelled slowly in a straight line. After a few minutes it was lost from view.19
Between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, Germany, near the Rhein-Main AFB in early June, two people saw a pair of glowing discs descend almost vertically, then rise rapidly. They were in view for about 10 seconds. The base's radar did not detect the intruders. At the Duesseldorf airport, in early or mid-June employees of various airlines watched a shiny UFO—described by one as a saucer—approach from the south at high speed, turn west, then ascend through the 6,000-meter overcast.20
Police in Norrbotten Province, Sweden, announced that two additional persons had come forward to relate their recollections of the May 13 incident there. One eyewitness declared that he had seen a “silvery football-shaped object” (a soccer ball to Americans) coming from the nearby border with Finland. With a fiery tail 70–80 meters long, it appeared to descend to earth about half a kilometer from where he stood. Separately, a second witness also described the object as spherical; she said it passed by her and descended into a wooded area a short distance away.21
During a June 30 total eclipse whose path crossed Scandinavia,22 in Helsinki, Finland, several photos were taken of an aerial unknown. The round object was said not to be the moon or a cloud. Informed sources further clarified: “One photograph differs from the others in that the upper edge of the object is illuminated as if the sun were shining on a hard surface. The center of the object appears as a dark blotch.”23
Likewise during the eclipse, in Norway a pilot at 4,500 meters took color motion pictures of two shining aerial discs with vapor trails, moving at great speed. Within 30 minutes after the eclipse, a “strange object was photographed in the sky in Maarianhamina, Finland. The cigar shape appeared on several pictures taken as a result.”24
On July 7, 1954, at Hallein, Austria, three men reportedly observed an unknown, stationary above the Tennen Mountains. It was described as a shapeless bright red mass with a diagonal streak; its size was about three times the size of Venus. The men added that it moved “spasmodically,” both vertically and horizontally.25
On an evening prior to July 25 south of Salisbury, Rhodesia, a policeman and friends observed six unidentified objects in the sky. Almost immobile, they were visible for about 20 minutes before leaving as night fell.26
About 10:00 p.m. August 6 at Darmstadt, West Germany, several residents, the local weather station crew, and a night-duty officer at police headquarters separately observed three flying saucers. Fiery red-yellow in coloration, the anomalies alternately hovered and darted to and fro. They remained in the area for 1½ hours. The same night between 10:00 and 11:15 p.m., at Schleawig, West Germany, two anomalies were observed. “They were described as faint, fiery red points of light, which finally approached close enough to be made out as disks. Greenish-white rays are reported to have been emanated from the center of the disks.”27
On the afternoon of August 17, in central France an industrial engineer claimed to have seen an unknown over the town of Montluçon. He described it as a “luminous, brilliant white, disk-like object.” After several seconds, it proceeded behind a cloud and out of sight.28
Several days before another incident was published on August 25, at least two-dozen persons at Rastatt in southern West Germany witnessed a pair of unknowns pass over the city in seconds. “The two disk-like objects were lighted like white neon lamps and made no noise. The radar sets at the nearby airfield of Soellingen, where Royal Canadian Air Force jet fighters are based, failed to pick them up, because of their high altitude.” Several similar sightings had been reported in the region.29
On August 19, 1954, at 8:45 p.m. in Bregenz, Austria, three men reportedly observed a disc that abruptly reversed direction and displayed phenomenal movements. Viewed from their homes on Lake Constance, residents described a small gleaming disc-shaped object, about twice as large as Venus, t
hat came from the southwest. One of the witnesses said, “... [I]t turned and went in the opposite direction, making some abrupt zigzags over Bregenz. After about two minutes it disappeared into a bank of clouds.”30
In northern France on the night of August 22, a man in the town of Vernon spotted a “large, luminous, cigar-shaped object” motionless in the sky. Momentarily, “a flying saucer detached itself, assumed a vertical position, descended a short distance, leveled off, and silently disappeared at great speed.” Over the next 45 minutes, four more saucers emerged and did the same. The final one to exit went to a lower level before flying away, revealing itself as red in the center and edged in black. Two Vernon constables also reported sighting an elongated, luminous airborne object that night. None of the witnesses mentioned the manner of its departure.31
On unspecified days prior to August 29, members of the Swiss Air Force and others reported flying saucers to authorities. Five objects in formation were reportedly seen in the mountainous terrain around Lake Constance. A newspaper had earlier carried a sighting report from August 19, it too involving five unknowns around Lake Constance.32
A man in Lyon, France, reported sighting an aerial oddity at 10:15 p.m., August 31, 1954. The “short, fat cigar” was moving east to west over the city. “The object was bluish-green in color and emitted sparks from its tail.” It headed toward a radio beacon mounted outside the city.33
About 8:20 p.m. (date uncertain, but prior to September 4), various people in Angers, France, watched as a disc passed over the city. “The object was generally described as being brown and emitting a smoke trail of an odd hue of green.” A local nurse said it “gave off a soft drone, and its glow was reminiscent of the light in neon tubes. The phenomenon was visible for several minutes.”34
In the first week of September 1954, outside Dakar, Senegal, on Africa's west coast, a mason and his assistant saw a “gray object resembling a truncated millstone with a large inverted plate lying on it in a field about 200 meters from the road where they were bicycling ... The object oscillated slowly and seemed to have a closed door on its side....” The men left their bikes and ran toward the object. When they had covered roughly 50 meters:
[T]he object began to fly away. Smoke was then visible from a sort of exhaust pipe on the underside. After an oblique flight of about 15 meters, the object rose vertically and disappeared. Police later found no traces of the object ... They stated that the object never touched ground, but hovered above the ground like a helicopter. It was about 10 meters in diameter and 3 meters in height, did not glow, and departed noiselessly, trailing smoke as it took off.35
On the 7th of September at 12:30 a.m., a couple plus an in-law were driving in France's Aisne Department when they spotted a red-orange disc following a railroad track; it stopped suddenly across the road, some 300–400 meters off the ground. “It seemed to have on its upper side a small luminous tail forming an integral part of the object.” When they reached a particular bridge, they saw the flying saucer increasing in altitude. Their headlights beamed on it, and the object flew at great speed toward a nearby town, soon lost from view.36
On the night of September 14 over Helsinki, Finland, several individuals watched a circular object 800 meters in the sky that issued intense light and left broad reddish smoke three times as broad as the vehicle.37
At 8:00 a.m., September 15, a man in Calvados Department, France, witnessed the appearance of a white point of light in the sky, which grew in size, resolving into an oval of unusual brilliance. The sighting lasted two minutes. “The witness stated that he was not subject to hallucinations.” A similar phenomenon was reported by a farmer—also in Calvados Department.38
In Tuscany, Italy, two residents of Pitigliano reported sighting a round white object on September 14 that made a “strange, loud noise.” The object stopped “then disappeared at high speed.”39
On September 17 in the afternoon, tower controllers at Rome's Ciampino air base “observed a mysterious object shaped like half a cigar flying slowly at an altitude of about 1,200 meters. Leaving a trail of luminous smoke, the anomaly was visible for about 40 minutes. Those manning the tower watched the object make a 400-meter dive then rise again, moving from a horizontal to a vertical attitude. As the object took off toward the sea, the Ciampino tower notified the Practica di Mare (military air base) control tower, 30 kilometers from Rome, which picked up the object and followed it on its radar screen for about 20 minutes. “The radar showed the presence of an antenna located at the center of the widest part of the object.”40
All other factors aside concerning the validity of published saucer reports of the time, a conditioning of sorts was underway. Eerie accounts of things in the sky that ought not to have been there were becoming commonplace in local newspapers. Whether true, exaggerated or hoaxed, the stories were often thought provoking. The general public across many lands—even in the Soviet Union—were now somewhat accustomed to reading or hearing of them in the news periodically. UFO headlines and their implications, sparked by a free press or otherwise, remained in one's subconscious. The accounts were not quite as astonishing as they had been only a scant few years before.
While you were away from your desk . . .
Some publicized events involving anomalous aerial phenomena occurred around the world in 1954 without the CIA's notice—at least as recorded on its website in 2017.
March 1954
The Defense Department issued an ominous warning to both military and commercial airline pilots in the form of a new regulation. Joint Army/Navy/Air Force Publication (JANAP) 146(C) was titled “Communication Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings from Airborne and Waterborne Sources.” Listed with suspicious aircraft and missiles were unidentified flying objects. Those sightings were now an intelligence matter.41 The Air Force followed up with its own regulation, AFR 55-88, Communications Instructions Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings (CIRVIS). To ensure pilots would no longer talk to the media, a heavy fine or imprisonment was threatened.42
May 14, 1954
Just after 12:00 a.m., at Maxton, North Carolina, a patrolman and passenger encountered a bus-sized triangle hovering above the trees of a mobile home park. As related afterward by the officer: “The craft gave off a real bright light, yet the ground wasn't lit up at all. There were about 30 lights, each about one foot in diameter, and they were so bright and intense that they blinded us from a block away.” The men gave chase for 20 minutes. Outside the town near the passenger's home, the intruder landed, then “just vanished.”43
July 1, 1954
Tragedy struck the town of Walesville, New York: before noon that day, air traffic controllers at Griffiss AFB tracked an unknown moving across the state. An F-94 Starfire with a two-man crew was scrambled. Onboard radar vectored the plane to the targeted area. Breaking through cloud cover, the men spotted a gleaming disc. As they closed in, a suffocating heat suddenly filled the cockpit. They were unable to continue and bailed out. The jet careened downward, striking a building in the town then a passing auto. Its occupants—a couple and their two children—were killed. Five others nearby were injured. The pilot and radar operator parachuted to safety outside the town. They were still dazed from the experience when a news reporter came upon them. The pilot was conveying to him the circumstances in the air and the onset of extreme heat when a sedan with an Air Force logo arrived. The men were whisked into the car, which immediately left.44
August 16, 1954
At Tananarive, Madagascar, at 5:00 p.m.:
[A] green ball was seen in the sky and disappeared behind a hill. It reappeared a minute later and flew over the higher part of Tananarive. When the object flew in front of them, some witnesses could see a lentil-shaped device with silvery metallic aspect enveloped in electric luminous gas.45
August 29, 1954
At Prince Christian Sound, Greenland, at 11:05 p.m., the crew of a Royal Dutch Airlines DC-4 saw 3–4 dark, lens-shaped objects veer north and change pos
ition in formation.46
September 15, 1954
At Manbhum, in the Bihar district of India, a UFO was seen in the afternoon by about 800 people living in three proximate villages. Some witnesses described the object as shaped like a saucer, about 12 feet in diameter with a gray exterior.47
From September 12 to November 30, a great influx of UFO sightings occurred in western and southern Europe. The greatest number occurred in France, followed by Italy. This was the first large-scale European UFO wave.48
October 14, 1954
In the afternoon, a Meteor jet aircraft, part of the Middlesex Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, was flying from RAF North Weald, Essex, England, at 16,000 feet when three discs suddenly approached; the Meteor and the intruders were on a collision course. Two broke off and away while the third continued on a direct line. When within a few hundred yards, it finally veered away. The pilot banked to give chase but the discs were nowhere in sight. Each vehicle “was saucer-shaped with a bun on top and a bun underneath, and was silvery and metallic. There were no portholes, flames, or anything.”49
October 30, 1954
Two weeks later, an R7V-1 Super Constellation, a four-engine military transport with 42 passengers aboard, left Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland, headed for the Azores Islands. After passing over Bermuda, the plane was not heard from again. An intensive search failed to find any trace of wreckage. The Naval Board of Inquiry later concluded:
It is the opinion of the Board that R7V-1 BuNo 128441 did meet with a sudden and violent force, that rendered the aircraft no longer airworthy, and was thereby beyond the scope of human endeavor to control. The force that rendered the aircraft uncontrollable is unknown . . .50
