Vins Sur Caramy, France, April 1957April 1957

On Sunday, April 14, 1957, at 3 p.m., two women walking near Vins-sur-Caramy in southern France saw a metallic cone-shaped object land about 100 meters from them. The object was roughly 5 feet tall with a convex top resting on its point. From its surface, small metallic rods stuck out at right angles and vibrated rapidly. The machine made no sound itself, but as it touched down on the highway, a nearby metal road sign began to vibrate and rattle violently with a deafening noise. Frightened, the women cried out. A third witness, a beekeeper about 300 yards away on a nearby hill, heard the commotion and rushed toward the highway, arriving just as the object lifted off. The cone-shaped craft shifted eastward, traveled about 15 to 20 feet above the ground, and landed a second time on a dirt road roughly 200 yards away. Again, a metal road sign vibrated loudly as the object passed over it. The object then took off toward the southeast in a slow, uneven flight path. The entire sighting lasted about one minute.

After the sighting, local police found physical traces at both landing sites. At the highway location, the ground appeared to have been violently swept, as if by a powerful blast. At the dirt road, earth had been scoured away in a circular area roughly four feet across.

Three days later, investigator Jimmy Guieu arrived with a sound engineer from Radio Monte-Carlo. Working with local police and a skeptical police officer who theorized the object was a remote-controlled missile, Guieu conducted compass tests to examine whether a magnetic field might explain the vibrations in the road signs. His results were striking. His compass showed a 15-degree deflection when placed near the first road sign that had vibrated, and an identical deflection near the second sign. A third sign in the same area, about 25 yards from the first landing spot, showed no magnetic effect. An iron irrigation culvert near the second landing site also produced a 15-degree deflection. In contrast, the ground where the object actually landed produced no detectable magnetism. Guieu concluded that a magnetic propulsion field from the craft had caused the metal objects in its vicinity to become temporarily magnetized.

The witnesses to this case were well regarded in their community and showed no sign of dishonesty or fabrication. Guieu's investigation report reached both regional French police and air force authorities. The Air Police (the French equivalent of U.S. Air Force intelligence) began their own inquiry four days after the event, according to Guieu.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 63 scanned pages.