Guyane, France · 2010-06-27 · from the GEIPAN archive
On 27 June 2010 at 6:05 pm, a pilot and his co-pilot in flight Nouméa–Seoul on an Airbus 330 at 40,000 feet (12,500 meters) saw a very bright luminous point "at 1 o'clock" moving rapidly in a straight trajectory heading southeast. No smoke or trace of combustion was noticed. The speed was estimated at Mach 6 for an altitude of at least 80,000 feet (about 25,000 meters). When the luminous point reached their 3 o'clock position (90° to the right), the pilot contacted the area air traffic control based in Guam, without giving a precise position or heading. The controller, initially surprised, answered in the negative before contacting a minute later an American Airlines flight in the sector to ask for confirmation of a possible unreported air traffic. The American Airlines flight crew confirmed the sighting. The observation ended after 5 minutes, when the luminous point passed into the blind spot of the crew of the flight in progress. Only one testimony was collected. This observation has all the characteristics of a satellite observation; the most likely hypothesis is the observation of the International Space Station ISS. The indications of position in the sky, date, time, and duration of the observation are consistent with the proposed hypothesis. As always in such cases, the distance and speed estimate made by the witness, even an experienced pilot, cannot be accurate. Without reference points, it is absolutely impossible for a witness to estimate the distance, size, and speed of an object they do not know. Only the angular speed of the phenomenon's movement should be considered precisely. Since the ISS is much brighter than other satellites, the crews will have perceived it as closer and at lower altitude. The indications of position in the sky, date, time, and duration of the observation were taken into account precisely, and are consistent with the proposed hypothesis (see the detailed investigation report). GEIPAN classifies this case as "A": observation of the International Space Station (ISS).
What stood out: pilot witness
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This is an official case file of GEIPAN, the French space agency's unidentified aerospace phenomena office, machine translated from French. The original text and the full investigation file are at geipan.fr. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request.
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