1952.10.17
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12.50
[Mr Prigent] and children… saw a curiously-shaped cloud in the skies over his home in Oloron-Sainte-Marie. Behind it was a long cylinder which seemed to be emitting an exhaust trail. Ahead of it were some 30 disc-shaped UFOs which left a trail of so-called “angel hair” behind them.
(Fact or Fiction: UFOs, Blundell)
Mothership sighting
Many witnesses… reported sighting a cigar-shaped UFO accompanied by a flotilla of disc-shaped objects. These UFOs were described as red with yellow rims around them, giving them a “Saturn-like” appearance.
(The UFO Encyclopaedia, Spencer)
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There is a report that the UFOs dropped angel hair, a substance similar to a spider’s web… Angel hair that has been briefly examined in situ does not seem to have anything like the strength to ensnare a person.
(The UFO Encyclopaedia, Spencer)
A Oloron-Sainte-Marie (Pyrénées Atlantiques / Pays Basque), le Friday 17 October 1952 vers 12:50, [M Prigent] (instituteur surveillant général d’une école), ainsi que sa famille (sa femme, ses deux fils) ainsi que d’autres personnes, réunies ou isolées, dans la même ville ou dans des villages aux environs, voient passer dans le ciel un phénomène étrange, en direction du sud-ouest.
M [Prigent] évalue son altitude évaluée diversement à 2000, 3000 ou 10000 m un énorme cigare blanc incliné à 45°, accompagné d’un panache et de dizaines de boules lumineuses entourées d’un anneau qui avancent en zigzaguant. Devant lui, environ 30 objets progressent par couples. [M Prigent] les observe grâce à ses jumelles et voit qu’il s’agit de sphères rouges cerclées d’un anneau planétaire de couleur jaune, comme des versions réduites de Saturne. Tous ces ovnis émettent de temps en temps des jets de vapeur, et laissent derrière eux de longues traînées d’une substance tombant lentement au sol.
Les objets ont également été perçus sur les radars de la toute proche station de Mont-de-Marsan.
De nombreux témoins assureront qu’il en tombait encore des heures après ; tout d’abord gélatineuse, cette substance se gazéifie en quelques heures. On nommera cette abondante traînée sous forme de filaments les “fils de la Vierge”.
… Un maître de physique d’Oloron-Sainte-Marie annonce que les fils lâchés sont l’oeuvre de grosses araignées….
France Dimanche n° 322 du 26 octobre, titrant: Les soucoupes volantes vues à Oloron le 17 octobre sont prises au sérieux par les services officiels
[On Friday 17 October at around 12.50, [Yves Prigent] (primary school headmaster), along with his family (his wife, his two sons) and other people, together or separately, in the same town or in nearby villages, see a strange phenomenon heading in the direction of the southwest.
Mr Prigent estimates its altitude variously as 2,000, 3,000 or 10,000 metres – an enormous white cigar inclined at 45°, accompanied by a plume and by tens of luminous balls, surrounded by a ring, which zigzag ahead. In front of it, about 30 objects progress in pairs. Mr Prigent sees them thanks to his twin girls and sees that these are red spheres circled by a planetary ring of the colour yellow, like reduced versions of Saturn. All these UFOs emit jets of steam from time to time and leave behind them long trails of a substance falling slowly to the ground.
The objects have also been picked up on the radars at the nearby station of Mont-de-Marsan.
Numerous witnesses will testify that more of it fell for hours afterwards; initially gelatinous, this substance evaporates in a few hours. This abundant trail in the form of filaments will be called “the Virgin’s hair”.
… A physics master from Oloron-Sainte-Marie announces that the released hair is the work of large spiders…
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France Dimanche no 322 from 26 October with the headline: The flying saucers seen at Oloron on 17 October are being taken seriously by official bodies