An account in Oise, France

On October 6, 1954, at around 8 p.m., several members of a family observed from their home, for about 40 minutes, a luminous disc of orange-red color, with an apparent diameter half that of the full moon, supporting a kind of gondola. The light intensity was variable and turned on and off alternately. The object seemed to be above Senlis and moved slowly to the right. GEIPAN received a brief information sheet from the gendarmerie. Only one testimony was collected. At the time of the observation, the sun had set half an hour earlier; it still illuminated objects at high altitude, such as aircraft or scientific balloons. The shape described by the witnesses and the direction of observation toward the west are consistent with this. GEIPAN classifies this case as B: probable observation of a scientific balloon.