Croix d'Epine entity encounter — 1954

Ernest Delattre, a nineteen-year-old mechanic, reportedly encountered an unusual appearance while riding home toward Saint-Crépin-Ibouvillers, Oise, in early October 1954. Contemporary reporting and later catalogues disagree between 1 and 2 October and around 19:50 or 20:00. The newspaper also prints his first name differently. He was travelling by scooter or motorcycle from the Méru area when a bright, descending light drew his attention. He described an ovoid object coming down in a field to the left of the road. As he passed, roughly fifteen metres from it, he thought he saw two short dark silhouettes resembling sacks, about eighty centimetres high, without clearly defined outlines. He had the impression there might be more. He accelerated, looked back and said the object rose, changed color and briefly appeared to follow before turning away. Later summaries describe a fainting episode while he told the story, and reports of an aerial light from other locations. Those people did not independently confirm the small figures. A significant follow-up appeared in L’Oise-Matin on 6 October: reporters visited the indicated beet field and identified debris as remains of a weather-balloon parachute. That finding is relevant but does not reproduce every part of Delattre’s remembered sequence. No recovered occupant or independently measured craft was established. The plate retains indistinct sack-like forms rather than inventing faces, and labels the date disagreement and balloon-debris finding.