Case file · Close encounter
Alençon 'globe' landing
A classic of ufology: a 1790 police report supposedly described a hot globe landing near Alençon and a man in strange clothes stepping out, then vanishing.
1790 CE · 48.43, 0.09 · status: claim
The account
The story, dated 12 June 1790, names a police inspector Liabeuf sent from Paris. It circulated in French ufology from the 1960s onward as the 'oldest official landing report'.
The sceptical view
No original document has been found in the archives; researchers regard the story as unsourced and probably invented in the 20th century.