Sighting in Seine-Maritime, April 8, 1956

At around 11:40-11:45 pm, three witnesses in the commune saw a red ball to the west, in a clear, moonless night sky. It first seemed to hold still for several minutes, then appeared to move as the witnesses themselves moved. It eventually vanished behind trees. The sighting lasted about twenty minutes.

The gendarmerie collected three other accounts for the same night, between 11:30 and 11:45 pm. These people were travelling by car in Elbeuf and described a round, red shape in motion, seen very briefly, for 4 to 5 seconds, in the direction of Orival.

The available information does not confirm that the two groups saw the same phenomenon. An astronomical check showed that, for the first group, Venus was close to the horizon, about 45° north of the direction in which they were looking. For the second group, who were looking north, no particular celestial object was visible. GEIPAN considered the case not very strange and the information too imprecise, and classified it C because of insufficient data.