Global Sightings
Something odd was happening in France. But strange activity was going on everywhere. A hovering disc was photographed in Nelson, New Zealand, on September 9. The CIA noted a seven-second, multiple-witness sighting in Helsinki on September 14 of an intensely bright circular object that left a trail of reddish smoke. On the 15th, in Bihar, India, a disc-shaped UFO set off a panic, as it descended to 500 feet and hovered over an American AEC mine. Eight hundred people fled to their homes. After apparent close-range observation, the craft swiftly ascended vertically. On September 17, thousands of people in Rome, Italy, watched a disc-like object that was tracked by Italian Air Force radar. On the 18th, green fireballs made another appearance in the American southwest (Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas), and were again investigated by Lincoln La Paz. The next day, in the French West Africa town of Danane, officials saw an oval UFO with a dome and searchlights. Apparently there was some activity of UFOs in Eastern Europe, as in October 1, Romanian newspapers blamed the U.S. for launching a drive to induce a "flying saucer psychosis" in their country.
Worldwide, UFO sightings occurred briskly through October. Many were reported in the Middle East and North Africa. On October 5, hundreds of people in Mehalla-el Kobra, Egypt, saw a "spindle" like object for twenty minutes. In Behnay, Egypt, cylinders in the sky emitted a thick smoke. One exploded, and the debris killed and burned two cows. A military officer photographed a "rotating saucer" that gave off smoke near the Suez Canal, and sent it to the Egyptian Army Public Relations Office and the Helouan Observatory. Admiral Youssef Hammad, director of Ports and Lighthouses, alerted pilots and astronomers to watch for UFOs over Cairo. . . .
. . . In Europe, some high-quality UFO sightings occurred not only in France, but Britain, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. Several governments took action on the UFO problem. On October 1, the Swedish Defense Ministry ordered a new secret inquiry into UFOs. The next day, the French Air Ministry ordered an official investigation. On the 7th, the Italian Air Ministry ordered day and night vigilance at detection posts by "saucer spotters." On October 10, the Royal Belgian observatory at Liege opened a file on UFOs and asked for public reports of sightings.
The concern was for good reason. It seemed like the United States from the summer of 1952, with a twist. The traditional sightings by military pilots continued, such as an October 4 incident in which a "Saturn-shaped" UFO buzzed an RAF Meteor jet. But increasingly, people with no apparent reason to lie were claiming to have seen – for lack of a better word – aliens. . . .