A Brief History
On January 8, 1981, a close encounter with a UFO left actual physical evidence!
Digging Deeper
Digging deeper, we find what Popular Mechanic’s magazine (May 2001) called “…the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time.”
A French farmer working outside on his farm near Trans-en-Provence, France was alerted by a loud whistling noise and watched in amazement as a UFO landed on his field about 150 feet away. He later described the UFO as looking like two saucers on top of each other and being a bit over 2 meters in diameter.
The farmer reported the UFO landed only briefly and then took off. He said he could see some sort of devices under the UFO extending several inches from the bottom.
Police examined the scene, took samples and also notified government space authorities.
The remarkable thing about this incident was the rare physical evidence left behind. Burn marks on the ground and compacting of the soil were verified by GEIPAN, an investigative unit of the French space agency, as were trace elements not expected to be found there.
It was determined that the burn marks were caused by a temperature of 300 to 600 degrees Celsius and that the ground was compacted by at least 4 tons of force.
As with virtually all UFO reports, this one has its champions and its skeptics. A major fault critics see with this incident is that only the farmer witnessed the event. The farmer himself thinks the object was some sort of military secret device, as a military installation was located near the scene. But there is the physical evidence! Question for students (and subscribers): What do you think really happened? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
Fortunately, the aforementioned issue of Popular Mechanics is still available over on Amazon.com:
“When UFOs Land.” Popular Mechanics, May 2001.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by PHILCK06, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="992 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=992">19 Comments
My personal opinion is that there is life on other planets. I also think that it is a good chance that the farmer saw something from the military. I am sure there are many things that all the governments around the world do not tell the common people.
This is a very interesting article because of the evidence that was taken from the scene. Although the farmer was the only one that saw this possible UFO there is still evidence that something was there. I don’t know for sure if it was something the government may have done or if it really was something out of this world.
Its crazy to think about other planets and the possibility of having life on them, but I don’t doubt it!
I do not believe UFO’s are real; however, a man at my work does. I think people see things such as the space station on occasion and call it a UFO. The space station reference is actually from a news article. People called in to report a UFO but it was already proven it was a rare sight of a space station.
I have no strong feelings toward the topic of aliens. I think it is possible for there to be life on other planets but it is discouraging to the idea that almost all alien sightings have been by one person only.
I believe that there is aliens and that they have visited and that they did help with some of the ancient marvels that were made.
It is interesting that there was proof left behind that something was there. I’m not sure that I believe it was an alien, but the military idea could be entertained!
I’m not a big believer of aliens, but this article did interest me into wanting to know more. I do believe that there could be life on other planets, just because Earth is inhabited doesn’t mean that the other planets can’t fortify life either.
I do not believe in aliens but this article was very interesting!
I am not sure on how i feel if aliens are real or not. I believe there may be some type of aliens but not in the stereotypical form that we think. interesting article!!
There is a lot of evidence supporting the aliens. I don’t really believe in aliens however I could see them being in existence.
It’s a little suspicious that the farmer was the only witness present for this alien sighting. It will take a bit more evidence for me to begin to believe in aliens on Earth, but there always could be other life forms somewhere in the universe.
Its very suspicious that, like in almost all alien stories, only one person witnessed the aliens. The physical evidence was not enough to convince me that aliens were there. But it is likely that in our vast universe we are not the only ones that have a planet that can support life.
I generally think of farmers as people who like to keep themselves. I do not think a farmer would want such attention, or investigation, going on at his farm. With that being said, I do not think he would make up such a story.
I really dont t believe in aliens but i always like reading about this stuff
Since only the farmer witnessed the aliens, this does not mean that it is true. He might of thought that was a UFO but it could have been something else.. But there is a possibility that the farmer could have been accurate.
The farmer was the only witness so I would need more evidence in order to believe that Aliens actual do exist.
I think that because there was only one witness it gives this less credibility. I am not saying that the farmer is lying but if there were more people that saw the same thing I would be more entitled to believe this. The farmer could have very well seen something like a UFO I just can’t say that I believe it.
Although the farmer is the only one who witnessed the UFO I do not think that a farmer would like this much attention. Therefore I think that he is telling the truth.