An account in Yvelines, France

GEIPAN received an email on 23.02.2008 from the witness informing it of his observation of an unidentified aerospace phenomenon (UAP) on 15.09.1986 from the town of VELIZY-VILLACOUBLAY (78). While walking to work at 7:30 a.m., the witness was surprised to see in the sky the silent movement of about ten identical green lights moving from East to West. Only one testimony was collected. Let us go back over the key points of the witness's description of the UAP: - green color. - horizontal movement from East to West. - absence of noise. - about ten identical lights made up the UAP. - movement of all these lights in a synchronized manner. All these points suggest an observation of either an atmospheric re-entry or a fragmented bolide (see the investigation report). A search of existing databases and the Internet at the date and time of the observation yielded nothing concerning either hypothesis. However, by broadening the search temporally, we find other testimonies of observations identical in every point made in Germany, France, and the Benelux, around 7:30 a.m., but on 23.09.1986 and not 15.09.1986. In the Paris region, the press reported these observations as early as the next day. The newspaper "Libération" of 24.09.1986, for example, mentioned the presence of about fifteen luminous points observed in the region. After investigation by several specialists in atmospheric re-entries and astronomers, it turned out that the phenomenon was a fragmented bolide. All its characteristics match the witness's description: color, horizontal movement from East to West, composition of about ten fragments... The present testimony was given 22 years after the observation. There is every reason to think that the witness got the date wrong, but the time of 7:30 a.m. was indeed memorized. This error is fully supported by the fact that the witness mentions the press release following the observation of September 23. "He told me that this very morning, while driving to work, he had heard on the radio a journalist who said he had seen something unusual in the sky over Île-de-France." In conclusion, the witness observed a fragmented bolide entering the atmosphere. GEIPAN classifies the case as A: observation of a bolide.