Petite-Île close encounter: Antoine S. and the Michelin Man beings on Piton Calvaire, 1975

In 1968, at the Plaine des Cafres, La Réunion produced its best-known encounter. In the Luce Fontaine case, the beings were compared to the Michelin Man. Seven years later, near Petite-Île, the comparison returned.

The witness was Antoine S., 21, a driver-clerk. Only his initial was published. On the night of 11 to 12 February 1975 he dreamed of "beep beep" sounds. They stayed with him for two days. He also dreamed of grapes. His fiancée said that meant misfortune.

Friday, 14 February 1975. The beeps returned, stronger. "The beep-beeps hurt my ears," he said. At 12:05 he told his boss he had to leave. Around 13:00, walking home for lunch on Piton Calvaire, he halted. "I was forced to stop as if I was held by a supernatural force." Over a cornfield, about 1.5 metres off the ground, hovered "a craft having the shape of a large hat or a cup posed on a reversed saucer." It was the size of an ordinary car. Aluminium-coloured. Intensely shiny. A round porthole sat in its upper part.

A three-step ladder appeared, bent at about 45 degrees. A small being came out, rounded, "like Michelin." A second followed. Then a third. They wore shiny suits, with antennas on each side of the head. The first held a shining object 30 centimetres long. The second carried a shining bag. The third scraped the ground. On the ground they moved clumsily, feet joined. On the ladder they seemed at ease. Through the porthole, Antoine saw the head of a fourth, in a helmet like a diving suit.

The third turned to face him, antennas moving. A powerful flash threw him back. The ladder retracted with a hydraulic noise. The craft rose with "a very strong whistle." He never saw where it went.

He lost consciousness, came round and ran home. That evening he told his story, grew distressed and lost the power of speech. He would not speak again until about 21:00 on 19 February. For a time he was also blind. Three times he tried to return to the site. Three times he fainted.

His mother, Marie S., alerted the gendarmerie. On 15 February at 10:30 they found him in bed in "an undeniable state of prostration." Sgt P.'s brigade interviewed his employer, his fiancée and his mother. On 18 February Cdt L. of civil protection checked Antoine and the site with a Geiger counter. Both were negative. No aircraft had flown over the department, and no weather balloons are launched there.

The ground had been trampled by many feet. A first search found nothing. Then a neighbour, Mrs Albert F., showed the gendarmes three holes she had noticed early on 15 February, one metre apart in an isosceles triangle. They merged with natural hollows in the friable soil.

The gendarmes drew no conclusion about the object. About the witness they were clear: "Antoine S., of good control and morality, normally balanced, is not a simulator." Dr T. found no wounds or burns, and described "a crisis of pithiatic appearance which occurred during an intense emotional shock." That speaks to his state, not its cause. The report noted he knew nothing of the 1968 saucer. No sceptical analysis has been published.

Patrick Gross transcribed the gendarmerie report in English and French and lists it as a close encounter of the third kind. The file also records other lights that month. At Saint-Benoît on 16 February, Jocelyne V., 16, saw "a luminous ball advancing slowly."