UFOs IN ORLY
Airport (France)
June 13, 1952
On June 13, 1952, around 2 a.m., a technician at the Orly Airport control tower saw a powerful, steady glow on the horizon. The sky was overcast at a thousand meters above sea level, when in a southwesterly direction the witness saw a motionless red sphere three times larger than Venus. He watches her for an hour. When the postal plane arrived from Nice, he reported the same observation to the control tower.
August 31, 1954
At around 7:30 p.m., a witness observed two bright orange objects from a great height. They come from the west at a fast pace and totally parallel. The witness alerts two other witnesses who observe that the two objects disappear to the east. A few minutes later, a third identical object and following the same path at the same speed. All three objects are described as pure. (MOC by Michel Aimé ** Arthaud 1958)
October 16, 1954
At around 9:35 p.m., several witnesses, including the control tower operators, observed a bottle-bottom shaped object, which was spinning on itself and leaving a luminous trail of orange, yellow and blue, thirty times. greater in diameter. It completely illuminated the street where there were two witnesses. (Alert in the Sky by Garreau Charles ** Alain Lefeuvre 1981)
February 17, 1956
Story by Clément Machecourt
It was around 11:55 p.m. on February 17, 1956 when an Air France Douglas DC-3 plane loaded with cargo took off from Orly airport. It’s cold, the sky is clear. The Orly tower controllers located on their radar the echo of an object twice as large as the largest aircraft of the time. An unidentified flying object that will remain the ghost of Orly.
Up to 2,500 km / h according to readings
While the Air France plane is at an altitude of 1500 meters, the UFO is moving at very high speed towards it. The pilot of the DC-3, Michel Desavoye, indicates to the control tower that he sees a flashing red light that is darkening in his device. He is forced to change course to avoid a possible collision with the UFO. He and his copilot will briefly observe a dark mass above, then to the side of their plane, before it disappears.
On February 17, 1956, the Air France DC-3 crew was not the only one who observed this strange phenomenon. Radar operators and pilots will have a cold sweat on Orly with this UFO either staying static or moving at high speeds, up to 2500 km / h depending on the readings, going straight towards the planes taking off or landing. Several times, air traffic controllers attempt to establish radio contact with the flying object, without receiving any response. After three hours, the “ghost of Orly” disappears, before reappearing in the French and American press.
“It was not in any case an airplane”
“I cannot give you an explanation of this phenomenon, explained Mr. Desavoye in the newspaper Le Méridional at that time, but I had never seen anything like it. The only thing I can tell you is that in no case was it an airplane, because we would have seen its position lights. The night was very dark and I couldn’t see where this light was coming from, which anyway seemed twice as big as the side lights normally”.
The French authorities will make inquiries, but none will be able to determine the nature of the UFO or its very existence. Inspection of Orly’s radar, meanwhile, concluded that it was in perfect working order. Le Bourget’s radar operators claim not to have noticed anything that night, as does the Paris Observatory, which specializes in astronomical research. The latter advances the track of an American weather balloon, launched over Germany and pushed by the winds to Paris, without giving, however, credible explanations for the recorded speeds.
An investigation by the US Air Force.
For its part, records declassified in 2015 from the US Air Force show that the US Air Force also investigated the mysterious ghost of Orly, to finally hypothesize an astronomical phenomenon of the planet Venus, while specifying that they do not have enough data to conclude. . The GEIPAN (Group for Studies and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena) has not identified the case of the Orly ghost on its site.
UFO, astronomical phenomenon, collective hallucination? What happened in the sky on the afternoon of February 17, 1956? Without a doubt, the ghost of Orly will remain a mystery forever.
By Clément Machecourt Posted on Dec 26, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Below is an excerpt from the various articles published in the press and that can be found on the Internet:
On the night of February 17–18, 1956 at 10:50 p.m., an echo corresponding to an object twice as large as the largest aircraft in service appeared on the radar of the civil airport of Orly near Paris.
As no aircraft were supposed to be there at the moment, the radar technicians initially limited themselves to following the evolutions of the supposed object, totally different evolutions from anything they had been able to observe so far.
Their speeds ranged from total stillness to a speed of 2,500 kilometers per hour.
The weather was unusually cold during February 1956, colder than ever since, and there was no storm. The sky was clear.
Later, while the object was still detected on radar, an Air France Douglas Dakota DC-3 (F-BAXI) carrying passengers on a scheduled flight from London entered the radar field. The unknown object, which was stationary at the time, is seen on the radar screen accelerating at lightning speed and moving toward the DC-3 aircraft.
The Orly Tower then calls DC-3 to ask if it doesn’t see anything. The DC-3 pilot responds that they see a flashing red light heading toward their plane apparently at very high speed. He indicates that the position of the light is vertical to Les Mureaux, which corresponds to the position of the object on the radar.
The DC 3 pilot had to change course to avoid a collision that seemed imminent, then the object disappeared from his eyes. For the control tower, the object now appeared to be on the Le Bourget side, which they reported to the DC-3 pilot.
The copilot, turning to this side, sees again not only the mysterious flashing light, but the object itself, huge and black against the background of the sky. He and the Captain watched the UFO for half a minute before it disappeared. In his report, the Captain claimed that the object they had seen did not carry any of the required navigation lights.
This merry-go-round lasted three consecutive hours. According to civil aviation investigators, the pilots of the various aircraft that landed did not take off that night in Orly after seeing the flashing light and, at times, the object maneuvering around them at high speed, they were pale with fear.
The French government then implemented all the means to solve the enigma of the “ghost of Orly”. But researchers quickly discover that air traffic control tools work perfectly. In this case, the conclusion of the investigation is unclear. The United States Air Force was content to check the box corresponding to an astronomical phenomenon, which here would be due to the planet Venus, while specifying that the data are insufficient to conclude.
An article from The News 02/18/56
Paris has her nose in the air for the flying object
Paris, February 18. — A mysterious flying object, sometimes hovering and sometimes moving at around 1,500 miles per hour, was detected by radar over Paris last night, authorities said today.
The UFO (??) was described as as large as any known aircraft. It also showed red lights.
Observation at two airports
The object was recorded on radar screens for a few minutes around 11 p.m. at Orly and Le Bourget airports on opposite sides of Paris, airport authorities said. He did not respond to radio calls from the Orly control tower.
An Air France pilot, flying from Paris to London at 5,000 feet, saw the red lights of the object above his plane before it disappeared.
Return of the saucers?
A mysterious 2,400 km-h large-scale machine
PARIS. — The Orly radars detected the other night, on their screens, the presence over the Paris region of a machine that could not be identified, and whose dimensions, according to the size of the echo reproduced on the radar screen, would be double, of commercial aircraft currently in service.
The spot that appeared on the radar at 11 p.m. it stopped for moments, suggesting that it was a device that could be parked in space: during its fastest movements, the technicians calculated that it reached the speed of 2,400 km.h.
These observations were confirmed by an Air France pilot who, at the controls of a plane heading to London, saw a flashing red light above it and emitted by the unknown craft.
Flying in his DC 3 at an altitude of 1,300 meters, the pilot having been informed by the Orly local control of the presence in the vicinity of an unidentified machine, he in fact observed, while in the vertical of Les Mureaux, that a Red light moving towards him would enter and exit a few hundred meters above his plane.
Changing course to avoid the obstacle, he lost sight of the red light, but found it moments later, after control informed him that the mysterious object was heading towards Le Bourget. The light once again appeared over DC 3 before disappearing permanently into the clouds.
Astronomers: A weather balloon!
The Paris Observatory, questioned about the “object” spotted over Orly airfield, said nothing abnormal was reported the other night.
The most express reservations are made about the “mysterious aircraft”, but astronomers report that US probe balloons, currently launched in Germany, can reach diameters of up to 30 meters. These bulky balloons are carried by air currents, “jet streams”, which are particularly fast and turbulent.
However, it is pointed out, in aeronautical circles, that the enormous speed of the “machine” (2,400 km.-h.) could not have been reached by a balloon.
Furthermore, these balloons pass over France at great height; but Saturday’s machine was relatively low.
An article from the New York Times newspaper, 02/20/56
MYSTERY IN THE SKY OF PARIS
Unidentified object, on radar, flew at 1,500 miles per hour
PARIS, February 19 — Aviation circles today speculated on the identity of a strange object that hovers and flies alternately at speeds in excess of 1,500 miles per hour, detected Friday night by radar operators at the international airport of Orly.
The object caused a “flicker” on the radar screen roughly twice the size of conventional aircraft, technicians said. It appeared to be at an altitude of 5,000 feet and was seen following planes taking off or landing at Orly.
A radio beacon station southwest of Paris also reported the object, but neither Le Bourget airport radar nor the Paris observatory reported the contact. A spokesman for the observatory suggested that it could have been an American balloon that fell in Germany and was blown west by jet winds.
An article from the daily L’express 02/20/56
A mysterious machine in the Paris sky detected by Orly’s radar
A mysterious machine, twice the size of the most powerful transport plane, was detected for four hours overnight from Friday to Saturday by Orly’s radar. Following this appearance, extremely strict discretion instructions were given to the aerodrome staff. We have now spoken of a flying saucer, but specialists do not believe it, since astronomers have never observed such an object.
It is a secret observation device or a parasitic image due to uncontrolled interference, comparable in effects to parasites that thwart radio transmissions.
3,600 kms per hour
It’s 10 p.m. 50 that an Orly air navigation officer noticed this abnormal point on his screen.
It was traveling at a speed of 2,400 km per hour, which even increased to 3,600 km per hour. The “thing” went to meet the Air France Paris-London plane. His movement was not planned in the night air traffic, civil or military. Radio calls were made to him in various languages. He did not answer. This silence can also be explained by the fact that the machine perhaps did not have a listening instrument connected to the Orly frequencies.
He changed direction several times. He stopped and then started again. Sighted vertically over the Gornetz-le-Châtel radio beacon, near Rambouillet, it flew over Boissy-St-Léger 10 seconds later. Therefore, he had traveled 50 kilometers in 30 seconds. His speed was then 3,600 km-hour.
Le Bourget’s radar saw nothing
Observers noted that he was particularly interested in the landings and takeoffs of other aircraft. He generally followed them from Orly and Le Bourget.
Le Bourget’s radar registered nothing. The official services make the greatest mystery around this appearance and are completely silent. The Paris observatory did not notice anything in the sky.
The New York Daily Telegraph article, 02/20/56
Stalked
PARIS, Sunday. — Orly airport officials reported yesterday that a radar had detected an unidentified flying object.
They estimated the speed of the object they tracked Friday night to be 1,700 miles per hour.
Authorities said the object, twice the size of a normal commercial airplane, moved at that speed between stationary moments over Paris.
Airport officials said they have no immediate explanation for the reports.
Article in Le Figaro newspaper of 02/21/56
On the appearance in the sky of Paris of a mysterious machine
“The radar was working normally,” we told Orly.
We recounted the circumstances in which Orly’s radar technicians had observed, during the night of Friday to Saturday, the presence of a mysterious machine that soared through the Parisian sky for four hours before disappearing.
The information according to which the radar that detected the machine had been put under seal has been denied in the authorized circles, they point out that the radar constitutes too complex and too important a system to be simply placed under seal and that ‘it would be foolish to put out of service the Orly, whose operation showed nothing abnormal.
They also confirm that Orly’s air navigation service had alerted the territory’s air defense services around midnight.
Therefore, it is necessary to ask why the Meaux military radar, which may have observed this machine for almost four hours, did not go into action. Had it supported the Orly radar, the Meaux radar could have played an important role in shedding light on this mystery.
Article in Le Meridional newspaper of 02/21/56
Orly’s “Machine”: Total Mystery
‘It was not a weather balloon’ declared the pilot approaching him
PARIS. — “Surely it was not a meteorological balloon”, declared to the press Mr. Michel Desavoye, the Air France pilot who, alerted by the Orly control tower, last Saturday, saw in the Parisian sky an intermittent red light whose origin remains mysterious. .
At 36 years old, Mr. Desavoye has sailed all the world’s lines for five years as an Air France pilot. This is his story:
“I had taken off from Orly at 11:55 pm aboard a DC-3 carrying cargo for London. I have been providing this daily round trip service for a month. A few minutes after take off, the Orly control tower He pointed out an unidentified machine detected by radar heading towards Le Bourget, and that it should be on my route. M. Baupetuy, my radio and I looked a little to our right and at about the same height we had a red traffic light flashing .We were about 1,500 meters above Orgival. Wanting to avoid the obstacle, I changed course. There, the light suddenly disappeared. I resumed my journey. Then I announced that “the object” was now above me, but this time I did not see anything .
“I cannot give you an explanation of this phenomenon, adds Mr. Desavoye, but I have never seen anything like it. The only thing I can tell you is that it was not the case of an airplane at all, because we would have seen its position of the lights. It was very dark at night and I couldn’t see where this light was coming from, which still seemed to be twice as big as normal position lights. “
Back in Paris at 5 am, Mr. Desavoye was questioned by Orly radar technicians and an Air Force colonel and confirmed his statements in a written report.
The New York Daily Telegraph article, 02/22/56
Phantom Saucer Baffles Paris
By United Press
Paris, February 21 — The French government today sought to solve the mystery of the ghost of Orly, a colossal saucer-like object that swirled through the airport’s radar at supersonic speed last Friday.
This was the third time in less than a year that the ghost has been recorded by radar screens at the busy international airfield on the outskirts of Paris. The object has been described as being roughly twice the size of the largest known aircraft, has sometimes traveled at around 2,000 miles per hour, and has been floating around the airport for about four hours.
The mystery was further escalated when a detailed check-up detailed that the radar equipment was in excellent working order.
An Air France pilot reported seeing flashing red lights in the area where the ghost was placed by radar after it took off for London.
Orly’s Mysterious Machine May Be French
Sunday Mirror article of 03/11/56
Paris radars detect a flying ‘object’
Paris France. An unidentified flying object, described as twice the size of a normal airliner, has been spotted on radar screens here, Orly airport officials recently reported.
Traveling at about 1,500 miles per hour, the object appeared over the Paris area late at night and appeared to be stationary for a few moments before disappearing at high speed.
The object was also spotted by an Air France pilot flight to London who reported seeing an intermittent red flame in the sky above it.
Article in Quick-Texte magazine of March 11, 1956
Alarm at the Orly airfield radar station; For three hours, a mysterious flying object threatened the plane to take off and land.
(At this article location, there is a photo of 3 radar operators involved in this incident and 2 night photos of the observed object, followed by the caption below:
One of the ten radar technicians at Orly Airfield. They all saw a feature like this (right) on their radar monitors and immediately alerted the French fighter jets).
“It was incredible!” confirmed radar technician Baruc. For three hours, he watched the “impossible object” chase other planes.
Witnesses: Radar Chief Deveaux was questioned with his ten colleagues by the French General Staff about the ghost ship. He wrote in his report that the “flying object” had been over Paris for three hours. It was twice the size of the largest plane, sometimes stopping in the sky and then moving further at a speed of 2,400 kilometers per hour.
Proof: Suddenly, a banana-shaped mist formed around a mysterious giant body on the radar display screen. “It stopped and we could see exactly how a DC-3 taking off and a Constellation landing sank under the giant body. It seemed to me that it was as if the ghost ship wanted to observe Paris air traffic,” said one. of the radar people. But the ghost ship was resting in a northeasterly direction, stopped there, and finally jumped onto a mail plane. “We already feared a collision, when the impossible object circled: it had discovered a new target in the form of Swissair Flight 103 from London. It crossed the course of the DC-3 FBAXI that had just taken off.
Your pilot told us about “a compact reddish fireball”.
The phantom aircraft followed Swissair Flight 103 for 40 seconds. So it disappeared in the blink of an eye above Orly, as the fighter jets that the radar technician had alerted 3 hours earlier to be sent for interception take off. The team of the French Chief of Staff is now examining why it took so long to send the fighter jets from the Trous airfield 200 km away.
The proposed explanation is “indeterminable causes”
Testimony of Mr. Charles M.
At the time of this sighting, Charles M. of Toussus-le-Noble was an amateur private jet pilot. He was the host of the Air Club de Paris. Seventeen years later, he still remembered well the shock of the myriad of eyewitness accounts.
Charles M. writes that the sighting attracted considerable media attention in Parisian newspapers and on national radio stations. The Orly UFO was seen by thousands of people in Orly, Le Bourget and Le Vésinet, with a total duration of four hours for the event. During these four hours of presence in the Paris region, the UFO was seen in particular by almost all the personnel of the Orly night teams.
Charles M. explains that the UFO was detected as soon as it arrived by the radar operator Orly. The behavior of the echo that he detected was so different from that of airplanes that he first thought of a failure of his radar. He then compared the echo on his PPI (display) with what the PPI was showing “next door” (3) and then found that the two PPIs showed the exact same echo.
Charles M. specifies that the size of the UFO was twice that of the passenger planes of the time, the DC-4 and Lockheed Constellation.
The UFO headed towards the Dakota DC-4 [DC-3], which had recently taken off from Orly for London. The pilot’s name was Désavoi [Michel Desavoye]. The entire crew visually observed the UFO: Disavow, the radio, the mechanic. The UFO escorted his DC-4 for a time, then departed for Orly where it pursued another plane landing at Le Bourget. The UFO then participated in a “royal aerial ballet” and eventually returned to the Orly vertical, where it then spun vertically and at “breakneck speed” into the sky.
Charles M. recalls that the next day, Désavoi was summoned to Orly, where a commander asked him to deny the facts to calm the press and radio. Désavoi refused and remained in his position, repeating strictly what he had seen and remembering that his radio and his mechanic had seen what he himself had seen.
The case fell into oblivion, no one had an explanation at the time. But much later, a newspaper article briefly mentioned the following pseudo explanation: “We finally have the explanation for the Orly phenomenon: it was simply a radar echo in the Seine”.
Article in Planète magazine, n ° 10 from May to June 1963
“Yes, there is a problem with the flying saucers.”
Aimé Michel (ufologist), who gave very few details about the events themselves, but studied this case carefully, provides additional information that he collected from the personnel involved:
On the night of February 17–18, 1956 at 11 p.m., a dot appeared on Orly’s radar corresponding to an object twice as large as the largest aircraft in service. Not having been reported any aircraft in the region, the technicians at first limited themselves to following the evolution of the supposed object, fantastic evolutions, since the speeds vary from the most rigorous at the site to 2,500 kilometers / hour (note, for true, that, according to an American study that I will cite later and that has faith, this speed already excludes the hypothesis of thermal inversion).
But here a DC 3 of the London line appears in the field of the device. The unknown object, which was standing still at the time, is seen on the screen starting at lightning speed and running towards DC 3. The Orly tower then calls the latter to ask if he doesn’t see anything.
Pilot: I see a flashing red light moving towards me apparently at very high speeds, the pilot responds.
Control tower: What position do you assign to this light?
Pilot: The vertical of Mureaux.
It was the position detected on the radar. The DC-3 pilot had to change course to avoid a collision that seemed imminent, then the object disappeared from view of him.
Pilot: I can’t see yours anymore. Have you lost contact?
Control tower: No, the object appears to be on the Le Bourget side.
In fact, the pilot, turning to this side, sees again not only the mysterious flashing light, but the object itself, huge and black against the background of the sky.
This merry-go-round lasted three consecutive hours. According to civil aviation investigators, the pilots of the various aircraft who landed in Orly that night after seeing the flashing light and sometimes the object, maneuvering around them at insane speeds, were pale with fear. But that is not all:
a) the object “knew” of the existence and position of the radio beacons. It frequently moved from one to the other at speeds of up to 3,600 km / h.
b) He “knew” the existence and limitations of radar. When no aircraft were in sight, he would leave the radar field vertically, returning there only to rush toward the approaching aircraft.
c) And here is the most fantastic. At one point, to be clear, the operators called the radar Le Bourget:
ORY control tower: Do you have the same reception as us?
Immediately, Orly’s radar was disrupted by powerful interference. To escape the interference, Orly operators changed the frequency. No more interference for a few seconds, during which the object was again perfectly visible on the screen. After that, the encoding was resumed on the new frequency: everything happened as if the object, having intercepted and understood the conversation between Orly and Le Bourget, had found the unwanted radar detection and encoded it, and this frequency in frequency, because the radar and Jamming did not stop continuing from that moment! This interpretation, it must be emphasized, was obtained from the aeronautical technicians who later investigated the incident.
Detail: Le Bourget’s radar, in distress, was not working that night.
Thus, in this particular case, radar observation was doubled not only by optical and visual observation, by the pilots who saw the object in flight, but by an entire cat and mouse merry-go-round that irresistibly evokes intelligent activity.
A few years later, I received a visit in Paris from one of the most eminent members of the Commission of Inquiry of the United States Air Force, who had come to consult my files and share his impressions with me. When asked what he thought of the Orly case, he let out a disappointed sigh:
Member of the Commission: We have cases of this type every month in the United States.
Aimé Michel: And can you explain them?
Commission member: Explain them? How will we explain them? It is perfectly inexplicable.
Aimé Michel: But then why the hell do you periodically publish press releases claiming that 99.5% of the cases that have been brought before you have received a satisfactory explanation and that the others do not matter?
Radio program “Le fantôme d’Orly” — France Inter — 06/23/2017 — by Fabrice Drouelle (53 min)
It returns to one of these enigmas, a real and unsolved fact, which fed the reflections of the ufologists and the imagination of all: the ghost of Orly.
Today Sensitive Affairs / Fiction brings you “The Ghost of Orly”
A program proposed by Christophe Barreyre
Written by Xavier Lacaille
Directed by Laurence Courtois
Tricks, optical illusions, misinterpretations of natural aerospace phenomena … such are the explanations, always rational, advanced by the authorities in charge of investigating, according to those who claim to have seen a UFO. These testimonies have multiplied since the 1950s, but science has not always been able to give forceful explanations to these mysterious encounters, nor has it destroyed the convictions of some, still convinced that extraterrestrial life has come into contact with our planet, nor the romanticism, that surrounds UFOs and that fuels our imagination and, for some, our convictions.
That night of Friday, February 17, 1956, like every night, the air traffic controllers at Orly airport kept watch in their control towers to ensure the smooth flow of aircraft arrivals and departures. That night, radars in the control tower detected the presence of an intriguing flying object — twice the size of the largest planes of the time, accelerating to supersonic speed before stopping at the airport for 4 hours.
Around 3 a.m., the object began to move again and appeared to be heading at full speed towards Le Bourget airport. In the control towers, the panic is palpable: it is impossible to intervene on this object, which runs the risk of colliding with a plane and causing a terrible accident!
And then what is it? This flying object does not correspond to anything known, not even to air traffic controllers, still trained to interpret images of the sky at the prestigious National School of Civil Aviation.
The investigation initiated by the government quickly concluded that it could not be a simple parasitic image disturbing the control towers: the radar is modern, the air traffic control tools worked well …
Scene excerpt
2 INT. COCKPIT — NIGHT
We are in the cockpit of the plane. The soundscape is more loaded.
PILOT
What is this mass on the radar?
CO-PILOT
I … I don’t understand, Commander. Anyway, it is not a cloudy mass.
PILOT
It is a plane? I have nothing on my waybill. We are supposed to be the only ones right now. Let’s try to contact them.
The pilot fiddles with some buttons. We listen to the sound of a radio.
CO-PILOT
This is Douglas Dakota DC-3. Commander Meroux has the plane.
We are heading to Orly airport and you are on our axis. Can you tell me
trajectory? Finished.
A short silence.
PILOT
I repeat, you are on our axis and I do not intend to deviate. We don’t have enough fuel. Finished.
A short silence. Still no answer.
PILOT
Do you receive me?
Unanswered.
CO-PILOT
Commander, I don’t think it’s an airplane. The object is static on the radar.
PILOT
But … what the heck is this …
The pilot activates a button to call the control tower.
PILOT
This is FLY Douglas Dakota DC-3, for control tower, can you see me? Finished.
CONTROL TOWER (OFF)
I get you 5 out of 5. Done.
PILOT
I have a mass at 8000 feet that just popped up on my radar and I don’t have any of that on my roadmap. Finished.
A short time.
CONTROL TOWER (OFF)
I have no aircraft on approach except you. Check it out.
Finished.
PILOT
I repeat that I have a stationary mass in my radar field. An echo twice the size of our plane. (Starts to lose his temper)
What is this shit? We cannot afford to postpone our landing. We won’t have enough fuel. Finished.
Brief silence.
CONTROL TOWER (OFF)
(His voice seems less calm than before) I see a large mass on the radar … I …
The copilot cuts him off short. He just saw something.
CO-PILOT
What the heck is that light ?!
PILOT
Cow !!
We hear him get up in the cockpit and lose his balance. He falls to the ground and then gets up.
CO-PILOT
Are you okay, Commander?
PILOT
Yes, it’s okay …
Go back to his seat.
PILOT
Control tower, I can confirm that an unidentified machine has planted itself in our path. And it doesn’t have any mandatory navigation lights!
Guest Arnaud Esquerré
Arnaud Esquerré is a CNRS researcher and member of the Ethnology and Comparative Sociology Laboratory (University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense). He has been a professor at Sciences Po and EHESS. After having defended a thesis in sociology on the question of the crime of “psychological subjugation” in sectarian groups in France (Mental manipulation. Sociology of sects in France), Fayard 2009), he continued his work in this field of research in s’ interesting for eschatological discourses on the one hand, and astrological practices on the other. Recently, he published the Theory of extraterrestrial events published by Fayard in 2016. Through a structural and linguistic study of the UFO stories archived by GEIPAN (department of the National Center for Space Studies dedicated to the study of unidentified aerospace phenomena), he shows how these testimonies respond to the same narrative modalities as the fantastic stories. He also co-wrote with Luc Boltanski, Enrichment. A critique of merchandise (Gallimard, 2017)
The scriptwriter Xavier Lacaille: Xavier Lacaille, a graduate of the Fémis, scriptwriter, signs his 1st radio stage here.
Credits: It was “The Ghost of Orly” by Xavier Lacaille
With: Thierry Pietra, Matthieu Marie, Bastien Bouillon, Noémie Landreau, Céline Milliat-Baumgartner, Leslie Lipkins, Aurélien Osinski, Samuel Charles, Olivier Ruidavet, Ava Hervier, Elsa Parent-Koenig.
Sound Effects — Elodie Fiat
Recording, editing, sound mixing — Manuel Couturier, Antoine Viossat
Assistant Director — Léa Racine
A realization of Laurence Courtois
Music program: MGMT “Alien days”
STEREOLAB “Electronic stars”
The team
Producer Fabrice Drouelle
Christophe Barreyre Editor-in-Chief
Production assistant to Valérie Priolet
Coline Bordes Head of production
Music programmer Murielle Perez
Juliette Goux Director
The Orly Affair, February 1956
“The Orly Affair, 1956”
April 25, 1975
This time around, the “Flying Saucer” story doesn’t seem like a digression for many.
Two airline pilots spotted the UFO flying over the capital on April 25 and crashed at the north end of the Orly runways. This revelation, known only today, is one of the minute observations made at the airport by many trusted people. These observations were kept secret by the Air Police.
As for the pilots, they were preparing to land that afternoon, at 8:55 p.m., when they reported, in the control tower, that a dark red object spread by a light trail was flying low over the airfield. . , following a southeast-northwest course. Moments later, the pilots said, “the machine” crashed at the north end of the field.
For their part, the control tower technicians had made the same observation, as well as the mobile gendarmes on a surveillance mission at the airport, the latter also indicating that when the “machine” disintegrated, it had exploded into three separate pieces. However, immediate investigations in the North Orly area yielded no results. Police say they found no suspicious debris or found abnormal traces on the ground.
Excerpt from the magazine Bulletin of the Association of friends of Marc Thirouin “Commission of investigations on UFOs”, nº 7 March-April 1975
Friday April 25, 1975
UFO or meteorites in the European sky.
Observation of a traced black object by Orly control tower personnel and two pilots. After the investigation, there are no results. Meteorites surely accompanied by a UFO perhaps? (L’Eclair des Pyrénées).
August 14, 1975
Around 10:05 p.m., observation of a red sphere. (The great book of UFOs by Delval Pierre ** Editions De Vecchi 1976)
November 30, 1995
Around 9:04 am, the mechanic of an Air Inter Airbus A300 observed a rectangular object with several red and white stripes crossing the sky. (UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA EIGHTY YEARS OF PILO by Weinstein Dominique)
Article in Le Parisien newspaper from 08/02/2003
Melun. Thursday, November 30, 1995.
At 9 in the morning, an Air Inter IT 426 airbus, coming from Marseille, begins its descent towards Orly airport. Testimony of Captain Jean-Marie Gilman. “Suddenly, a strange machine appeared that was arriving in the opposite direction to our flight axis, it was flying twice as fast as an airplane. The object looked like a rectangular panel measuring approximately 12 m by 3 with a V-shaped mark.” The aircraft narrowly avoided the collision. “I said to my co-driver and the mechanic, ‘Guys, did we just see the same thing or what?’ The pilot writes an Airprox report. The case is closed. At the time, the media reported on this incident. Bernard Thouanel, who counter-investigated, is categorical: “It was a test of a stealth device, probably a drone, that was he had deviated from his trajectory.
February 9, 2000
Around 5:20 p.m., 2 witnesses observed a triangular stationary object. The sighting lasted 20 minutes.
All this information would not have been possible without the effort and research work of Jean Charles Dayot
AEROPORT-PARIS-ORLY.COM Chronicle of an airport
The original in French language. A work by Jean Charles Dayot and the original source is: https://www.aeroport-paris-orly.com/ovnis
