Knocking in Jura, France

On September 27, 1954 at 8:30 PM, three children (aged 12, 9, and 8) observe near their home a strange craft of aluminum color, rectangular in shape, partially split down the middle vertically. The craft has on each side at its base two supports bent outward. It measures approximately two meters high by one meter wide. One of the children throws a stone, then a dart from a toy he has, at the craft, which advances slowly and knocks the child over. The frightened child goes back inside and lies down. Two sisters will also see the craft and, frightened, go hide. No witness will see the craft disappear. The two sisters say they also saw a red glow swaying at ground level near their home. The parents give no credence to the children's account. Their teacher reports the observation to the gendarmerie. During the gendarmerie investigation at the time, two reports are filed. The captain does not question the children's credibility. They live on an isolated farm, do not read newspapers, and do not go to the cinema. Ground traces are found in the direction from which the red glow appeared: a wide ring in the grass, flattened and oriented clockwise. These traces are not recognized as being from trampling by people or animals. Four holes are also found in this ring. GEIPAN became aware of the investigation by private ufologist Yves Bosson, who met the witnesses in the 1980s, who confirmed having staged a prank whose consequences got out of hand. His report was presented at the Lyon Congress in 1992 ("Proceedings of the Sixth European Meetings of Lyon, May 1-2-3, 1992", SOS OVNI, Aix-en-Provence 1992, pp. 4-16), then published in the chapter "Pr�manon or Innocence: Investigation of a Case Above All Suspicion," in the book "UFOs, Toward an Anthropology of a Contemporary Myth," by Thierry Pinvidic et al., Heimdal Publisher, France, pp. 123-145, 1993. Pending verification of these claims, which are a priori reliable, GEIPAN classifies this case as C: lack of confirmed information.