Poligny, FR being encounter — September 1958

Gaston Tournier, a 50-year-old worker walking to the Poligny gas plant, reported seeing a brilliant orange globe at about 4:30 a.m. in September 1958. The HUMCAT account estimates its diameter at roughly 60 feet and its height above the ground at 100–150 feet. It was reportedly about 3,500 feet from him and appeared approximately twice the diameter of the full Moon. Tournier interpreted the globe as transparent and divided into two compartments by an internal partition. In the right-hand compartment he thought he saw a very large man standing and looking outward. The figure appeared to open a door in the partition and pass into the other compartment. This was an internal movement, rather than a person leaving the object. The light was reportedly visible until about 5:20 a.m. The sight disturbed Tournier enough that a coworker checked his work at the plant. A remark about the possible consequences of a mistake should not be read as evidence that an explosion occurred. The record was published retrospectively in Lumières dans la Nuit in 1970, and investigator M. Tyrode explicitly questioned whether a figure could have been distinguished at the estimated distance. The reconstruction therefore labels the visible interior as Tournier's interpretation and compresses the reported viewing range.