Gaillac formation and 'glass wool' fall
On 27 October 1952 about 100 people in Gaillac (Tarn), France, reportedly saw a formation of some 16 objects with a cigar-shaped craft. Glass-wool-like filaments fell on trees and wires.
1952 CE · 43.90, 1.90 · status: account
The account
The case reached the CIA through Maroc-Presse (Casablanca, 29 October 1952), summarised in a Foreign Documents Division digest distributed in February 1953. At about 16:00 the objects reportedly flew in pairs; they were disc-shaped with a swelling in the centre and gave off a bluish light at the sides. With them was an elongated cylinder, a 'flying cigar', in the middle of the formation. Witnesses said the objects shed shining whitish particles like glass wool, which hung on tree branches and telegraph wires and soon disintegrated, so none could be analysed in a laboratory. The display reportedly lasted about ten minutes in ideal weather before the objects left in a straight line.
The sceptical view
The CIA digest is unevaluated press material. Falls of 'angel hair' are often put down to ballooning spiders' silk, and no sample survived for testing.
Connections in the atlas
- The Nazi flying-saucer myth
- The Dakar dawn 'saucer'
- CIA press digest: saucers over Spain and North Africa, 1952