Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency foreign press report, distributed 27 September 1952, compiles unevaluated newspaper accounts of unconventional aircraft seen in Spain, Algeria and French Equatorial Africa in 1952. It describes four glowing spheres over Almansa, a red saucer over Andujar, and a luminous object that a cargo ship's master and first mate watched maneuver over Port Gentil, Gabon. Most items describe a wave of saucer sightings across Oran Department in July 1952, reported by police, a priest and a cadi.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
At 1537 hours, Maurice Dubessay, who works for L'Echo d'Oran, saw what appeared to be a brilliant disk going in a southwest direction at a great speed and at medium altitude. It disappeared after 5 seconds. In a similar time interval, Atias and Karsenty, two grocers; also saw the unknown object before it disappeared behind a cloud. SAUCERS OBSERVED IN TWO AREAS OF ORAN -- Oran, L'Echo d'Oran, 28 Jul 52 On 26 July 1952, people in two areas of Gran reported seeing unusual flying objects, described as "saucers." At about 2300 hours, three women in the Eckmuhl district of Oran noticed a large, orange-red, luminous patch in the sky, of the size of a duck's egg, but flatter. Traveling from east to west, it appeared to halt for a second then vanished. Three trustworthy individuals living on the Tiaret plateaus saw an unusual flying object at 1045 hours. The local parish observed it for about 40 seconds and described it as a shining, cigar-shaped mass without a smoke trail. It disappeared toward the northwest. A teacher and his wife gave a similar description, adding that the object had a dark center, was in an oblique position, and moved at an altitude of about 3,000 meters. No one heard any sounds of a motor. CITES SEVERAL APPEARANCES OF FLYING SAUCERS IN ALGERIA -- Casablanca, La Vigie Marocaine, 31 Jul 52 On the evening of 29 July 1952, two new flying sancers were sighted. The first, appearing at 2050 hours over Mostaganem, was visible only a few seconds. The second one appeared at 2300 hours at Ain Teledes. It flew above the city for about a minute, emitting a whitish trail of smoke. The manner in which it attained various altitudes revealed a surprising maneuverability. When it disappeared, it was headed south. This is the fifth time in a matter of weeks that this phenomenon has been noted in the Department of Oran. A saucer appearing to be about the size of a teacup was observed by two policemen over Frenda (at the east end of Oran Department). It consisted of a dark nucleus within a luminous mass. Hear Tlemcen, motorists noted a strange cigar-shaped object at a height of 600 meters. There was a luminous cloud in its wake. And finally, at Lumoriciere, about 40 kilometers from the Abdellys area, motorists saw a phosphorescent disk for a brief period of time. POINTS TO FREQUENCY OF FLYING SAUCER REPORTS IN ORAN DEPARTMENT -- Oran, L'Echo d'Oran, 31 Jul 52 After it had received and published a series of flying saucer reports, the newspaper L'Echo d'Oran carried a review of the occurrences, as well as several late reports. The following is a summary of the article. Our correspondents have sent us word of saucers appearing everywhere in Oran Department during the past few days. This seems to be the saucers' favorite area, one which is no doubt salutary for their development. They have appeared here with greater frequency than in France or the US. It is impossible, moreover, to doubt the veracity of the observers, since they include policemen, colons, a priest, and a cadi.
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.