An account in Aveyron, 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 investigation experience acquired over all these recent years, this re-examination sometimes leads to new remarks or even a change of classification. This observation case, previously classified D and named SAINT-AFFRIQUE (12) 2000, is part of a set of cases recently re-examined. On July 21, 2000, around 11:30 PM, a man and his son were observing the sky. They suddenly noticed, with the naked eye, five flashing white lights. The trajectories of these lights were short; some turned around before disappearing. The observation lasted 5 minutes. The lights disappeared one after another. The observation of flashing white lights moving in a linear manner in the sky is indicative of an airplane. What alerted the witnesses here results from the trajectories with U-turns and the sudden appearance and disappearance of these lights. Nevertheless, the airplane hypothesis, even if it cannot be a commercial airliner, remains possible and the most probable (military aircraft or general aviation), in association with the presence of some clouds that could have hidden the aircraft. The data that would have allowed confirming or refuting this hypothesis were not collected (or could not be collected) at the time of the testimony and are not available today. (We only have data from Météociel from Millau, 30 km away, indicating a sky not completely clear at 4 PM.) This hypothesis has the advantage of fully explaining the observation while being part of the possible or plausible. The lack of cross-checking does not allow retaining it as an explanation of the observation, but this same possibility prevents (in view of GEIPAN's current methodology, see GEIPAN news) considering this observation as strange and unexplained. We consider this observation as slightly strange and lacking information to consolidate the airplane hypothesis, which is otherwise plausible. GEIPAN classifies this case as C: lack of reliable information.