Date:
January 8, 1981
Location: Trans-en-Provence, France
On
the afternoon of January 8, 1981, a strange craft landed
on a farm near the village of Trans-en-Provence in the
Var region in southeastern France. Physical traces left
on the ground were collected by the Gendarmerie within
24 hours and later analyzed in several French government
laboratories. Extensive evidence of anomalous activity
was detected.
Artist's impression of the landed craft. (source: Lumieres
Dans La Nuit)
Drawing of the "device" by the witness.
One of the landing marks at the site. (Photo by Jean-Jacques
Velasco of GEPAN.)
Source:
ISSO
On
the afternoon of January 8, 1981, a strange craft landed
on a farm near the village of Trans-en-Provence in the
Var region in southeastern France. Physical traces left
on the ground were collected by the Gendarmerie within
24 hours and later analyzed in several French government
laboratories. Extensive evidence of anomalous activity
was detected.
The
case was investigated by the Groupe d'Etudes des Phénomènes
Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés (GEPAN), or
Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Study Group, established
in 1977 within the National Center for Space Studies (CNES)
in Toulouse, the French counterpart of NASA. (The functions
of GEPAN were reorganized in 1988 into the Service d'Expertise
des Phénomènes de Rentrées Atmosphériques
or SEPRA). The primary investigator was Jean-Jacques Velasco,
the current head of SEPRA.
The
witness was the farmer Renato Nicolai, 55, on whose property
the UFO landed and then took off almost immediately. Thinking
that it was a military experimental device, Nicolai notified
the local gendarmes on the following day. The gendarmes
interviewed Nicolai and collected soil and plant samples
from the landing site within 24 hours of the occurrence,
notifying GEPAN on January 12 as part of a cooperation
agreement for UFO investigation between the two agencies.
Further collection of samples and measurements of the
site were undertaken by the GEPAN team, and the samples
were thoroughly analyzed by several government laboratories.
The
first detailed report on the case was published by GEPAN
in 1983 in its "Technical Note No. 16, Inquiry
81/01, Analysis of a Trace." Nicolai's testimony
to the police was simple and straightforward: "My
attention was drawn to a small noise, a kind of little
whistling. I turned around and I saw, in the air, a ship
which was just about the height of a pine tree at the
edge of my property. This ship was not turning but was
descending toward the ground. I only heard a slight whistling.
I saw no flames, neither underneath or around the ship."
"While
the ship was continuing to descend, I went closer to it,
heading toward a little cabin. I was able to see very
well above the roof. From there, I saw the ship standing
on the ground."
"At
that moment, the ship began to emit another whistling,
a constant, consistent whistling. Then it took off and
once it was at the height of the trees, it took off rapidly...
toward the northeast. As the ship began to lift off, I
saw beneath it four openings from which neither smoke
nor flames were emitting. The ship picked up a little
dust when it left the ground."
"I
was, at that time, about 30 meters [100 feet] from the
landing site. I thereafter walked towards the spot and
I noticed a circle about two meters [7 feet] in diameter.
At certain spots on the curve of the circle, there were
tracks (or traces)."
"The
ship was in the form of two saucers upside down, one against
the other. It must have been about 1.5 meters [5 feet]
high. It was the color of lead. The ship had a border
or type of brace around its circumference. Underneath
the brace, as it took off, I saw two kinds of round pieces
which could have been landing gear or feet. There were
also two circles which looked like trap doors. The two
feet, or landing gear, extended about 20 centimeters [8
inches] beneath the body of the whole ship."
The
samples of soil and wild alfalfa collected from the landing
site, as well as the control samples from varying distances
from the epicenter, were subjected to a number of analyses:
physico-chemical analysis at the SNEAP laboratory, electronic
diffraction studies at Toulouse University, mass spectrometry
by ion bombardment at the University of Metz, and biochemical
analysis of the vegetable samples at the National Institute
of Agronomy Research (INRA), among others.
The
Trans-en-Provence case is very likely the most thoroughly
scientifically documented CE-II (Close Encounter of the
Second Kind) ever investigated. Some of the scientific
findings included:
"Traces
were still perceptible 40 days after the event."
"There
was a strong mechanical pressure forced (probably the
result of a heavy weight) on the surface."
"A
thermatic heating of the soil, perhaps consecutive to
or immediately following the shock, the value of which
did not exceed 600 degrees."
"The
chlorophyll pigment in the leaf samples was weakened from
30 to 50 percent... The young leaves withstood the most
serious losses, evolving toward the content and composition
more characteristic of old leaves."
"The
action of nuclear irradiation does not seem to be analogous
with the energy source implied with the observed phenomenon;
on the other hand, a specific intensification of the transformation
of chlorophyll... could be tied to the action of a type
of electric energy field."
"On
the biochemical level, the analysis was made on the entirety
of the factors of photosynthesis, lipids, sugars and amino
acids. There were many differences between those samples
further from the spot of the landing and those that were
closer to the spot."
"It
was possible to qualitatively show the occurrence of an
important event which brought with it deformations of
the terrain caused by mass, mechanics, a heating effect,
and perhaps certain transformations and deposits of trace
minerals."
"We
cannot give a precise and unique interpretation to this
remarkable combination of results. We can state that there
is, nonetheless, another confirmation of a very significant
event which happened on this spot."
Most
of the puzzling biochemical mutations were discovered
by Michel Bounias of INRA. Describing the young leaves
to a journalist from France-Soir magazine, Bounias stated
in 1983 that: "From an anatomical and physiological
point, they [leaves] had all the characteristics of their
age, but they presented the biochemical characteristics
of leaves of an advanced age: old leaves! And that doesn't
resemble anything that we know on our planet."
In
a technical report published in the Journal of Scientific
Exploration, Bounias concluded that: "It was not
the aim of the author to identify the exact nature of
the phenomenon observed on the 8th of January 1981 at
Trans-en-Provence. But it can reasonably be concluded
that something unusual did occur that might be consistent,
for instance, with an electromagnetic source of stress.
The most striking coincidence is that at the same time,
French physicist J.P. Petit was plotting the equations
that led, a few years later (Petit, 1986), to the evidence
that flying objects could be propelled at very high speeds
without turbulence nor shock waves using the magnetohydrodynamic
effects of Laplace force action!"
Out
of a total of 2,500 reports collected officially in France
since 1977 and investigated by GEPAN, this case and three
other ground trace incidents (where strange ground traces
were left after alleged UFO landings) continue to puzzle
the original investigator, Jean-Jacques Velasco. At a
meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE)
in Glasgow in 1994, Velasco summarized the "four
noteworthy cases" with "effects observed
on vegetation":
"These
cases have all been the subject of enquiries by the police,
then GEPAN or SEPRA. In each of these situations, a UAP
[Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena] was observed in direct
relation in a zone perturbed by the phenomenon.
1.
'CHRISTELLE' case of 27/11/1979: Persistence of flattened
grass several days after the observation. The samples
taken and analyzed by a plant biology laboratory at Toulouse
University did not give unequivocal evidence of chemical
or biological disturbance of the samples taken from the
marked area relative to controls. A study of the mechanical
properties of grass tissue subjected to strong mechanical
pressure showed that the duration is a more important
factor than the mass.
2.
'TRANS EN PROVENCE' case of 8/01/81: Apparition of a circular
print in a crown shape after observation of a metallic
object resting on the ground. The vegetation, a kind of
wild alfalfa, showed withering of the dried leaves in
the central part of the print. The analyses revealed damage
of a specific kind affecting the functional relationships
of the photosynthetic system.
3.
'AMARANTE' case of 21/08/82: Severe drying of the stems
and leaves on a bush (amaranth), punctuated by the appearance
of raised blades of grass before the phenomenon disappeared.
Biochemical analyses revealed that no reported outside
agent could be the cause of such effects. Only a corona
effect due to powerful electromagnetic fields could partially
explain the observations.
4.
'JOE LE TAXI' case of 7/09/87: Leaf damage on a tree (birch)
and functional disturbance of the photosynthetic system
after an intense light and sound phenomenon had been observed.
This case demonstrated the importance of good sample collection
and preservation for biochemical analysis."
Of
these four cases, Trans-en-Provence still remains the
best documented one. Velasco concluded that, after years
of investigations: "The laboratory conclusion
that seems to best cover the effects observed and analyzed
is that of a powerful emission of electromagnetic fields,
pulsed or not, in the microwave frequency range."
SEPRA's
latest thrust in the investigation has centered on "experimentally
reproducing in the laboratory, continuous and pulsed emissions
of microwave fields at various powers and frequencies
so as to verify biochemical effects on plants."
While the studies are still preliminary, Velasco concluded
his SSE presentation with the following statement: "However,
these initial studies carried out to validate the hypothesis
of microwave action on the biological activity of plants
in relation with UAPs need to be extended if we are to
understand the mechanisms involved at molecular scale.
Similarly, an investigation of the frequency range, the
power and the exposure time would be useful to confirm
the hypothesis of microwaves combined with other fields
of electromagnetic forces coming into play in the propulsion
of UAPs."
Source:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case110.htm