November 1954
(Hindustan Times, New Delhi ,
India
Source: Hindustan Times (YouTube
channel)
The whole article:
“A bright luminous object with a long tail which is reported to have
been seen in the sky over Calcutta on October 31 [1954] from the control tower
of the Dum Dum airport [now Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport] has
started a spate of speculation about flying saucers and Martian observers.
Airport authorities have a report from one of their technical officers
about his observation of this mysterious object. It is learnt that the officer
while on duty at the tower on October 31 last at about 6 p.m. suddenly found a
flash in the sky which was moving at a speed of more than 500 miles per hour at an
altitude of about 2,000 ft .
It was stated that the bright white object had a long luminous tail of
diffused white light and was passing about five miles north of his observation
point. The light appeared about three of four times brighter than an aircraft
tail light and the object disappeared from his view within a minute. It did not
alter its height, direction of flight or speed. It was steady in its movement
and disappeared gradually.
A foreign aircraft which was circling at the time did not report
anything about it at the time of briefing.
The aerodrome officer of the Dum Dum airport confirmed that such a thing
had been observed and a report on the subject had been submitted to him. He
declined to make any comment on the subject, but said that he was sending the
report to appropriate authorities.
Rev. Father F. Goreux, astronomer, in-charge of the St. Xavier’s College
observatory and senior professor of the Calcutta University
A doctor of science from [Louvain ]
University (Belgium
He said that he had also received telephone calls from some of his
acquaintances in the city who claimed to have seen a similar object in the sky
almost on the same date and time.
Dr Goreux explained that absence of sound could be due to a different
mode of propulsion, ‘unknown to us at present.’ Its luminosity he said ‘may be
a camouflage to hide its real identity.’
He added [that] the low speed and change of direction as had been
observed in such cases, were not compatible with the movement of astronomical
objects.
He added: ‘To my mind, the coolness of American scientific authorities
seems to suggest that they know about it. Had it not been so they would not
have remained silent about an object which had also been observed in America
In this connection he referred to a very interesting report which he
read some time back, in which it was stated that a pilot while chasing such an object had his
plane ‘blown to bits.’
Dr Goreux felt that the main thing was to collect observation from all
quarters to determine the truth about these objects.”
Wikipedia article: “Kolkata”:
Wikipedia article: “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport”:
Related posts:
(Hindustan Times/youtube.com image)
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International
Airport , Kolkata , India
(Google photo)
(tageo.com photo)
