An account in Vaucluse, France

GEIPAN continues to publish all of its archives on its public website www.geipan.fr. Among its publications are old cases classified at the time (A, B, C, or D) which are now being re-examined, with the sole aim of being more relevant in the conclusions. Thanks to new technical means (software) and the investigative experience gained over all these recent years, this re-examination sometimes leads to new remarks or even a change in classification. This observation case, previously classified D and named PRIVAS (07) 1993, is part of a set of cases recently re-examined. On December 11, 1993, around 8:50 PM, a female driver is intrigued by a very large light that spins on itself in the sky and disappears. A little further on, this light reappears, and the two passengers of the vehicle also observe this phenomenon. Upon arriving at a parking lot, the witness points out the UAP to another driver. The witness reports that for about twenty minutes this light spun on itself silently. Several other lights (between 6 and 10) are noticed below. The UAP appears and disappears, advances while spinning in all directions. Only one witness reports their observation to the Gendarmerie. The description has the characteristics that can be found in an observation of a laser show coming from the ground and reflecting in the atmosphere (thanks to droplets of moisture or the cloud layer): - patterns in the sky with one or more luminous points or segments, in one or more colors, according to a fixed or, most often, variable geometry. - rotation, sweeping, pivoting of the patterns, with the possibility of large and rapid excursions in the sky. - depending on atmospheric conditions, beams rising from the ground visible or not (in this case, sometimes only the rising beams are visible without projecting patterns in the sky). Laser shows, now frequent and easily recognizable in the testimonies received by GEIPAN, were rarer in 1993. It is not possible today to search for the origin of this show at the location or its vicinity (near Avignon). Nevertheless, we have an observation from that year, by chance on the same day but in a completely different place, where the investigation made it possible to find the show and demonstrates that the equipment producing such effects was sold to nightclubs in France (see the gendarmerie report of the observation case ILE BOUCHARD (37) 11.12.1993). GEIPAN classifies the observation case as B: probable (and not certain, for lack of having been able to identify the installation or verify the compatibility of meteorological conditions) observation of a laser or "Sky Rose."