Pilot witness in Seine-Maritime, France

On November 22, 2012 at around 9:15 PM, a witness is intrigued by the presence in the overcast sky of a bright, fixed light. Then at around 9:24 PM, he notices that the light is moving slowly and horizontally in the direction of Fontenay. The witness's mother also saw the fixed light, "like a spotlight," but saw no blinking lights. The light disappears, hidden by the roofs of houses. No other testimony will be collected. The gendarmerie conducted a thorough investigation with military air control, neighboring police stations, the OCTEVILLE airport, and METEOFRANCE, and opts for the possibility of observing an airplane coming from Lyon to land at Le Havre-OCTEVILLE, approaching the runway from the Northeast, 3/4 facing the south wind. The radar tracks, however, do not show this airplane, but these tracks are only provided over an area of less than 10 km west of Montivilliers; the airplane coming from the Southeast must pass through the aeronautical waypoint LHO, located at Mannevillette (LHO IAF 49°35'51.1 N - 000°10'51.8 E), well north of this track area: it will have bypassed, to the East then to the North, the area selected for the radar track (see attached map). An airplane seen head-on at low altitude is visible from 20 km, or even 30 km and more depending on weather conditions; it has the appearance of a single point of light, because the position lights and blinking lights, much less powerful than the narrow-beam landing lights, are not visible at that distance. That day, there is noted a great horizontal visibility of 60 km, despite the heavy cloud cover. Météociel. These rare weather conditions may explain that witnesses do not usually notice this regular airliner. It is also possible that the pilot chose that day a particular route or altitude. The same airplane, seen from the side, then presents its position lights (red or green depending on the side), and its blinking lights (red and/or white depending on the flight phase), and the landing lights, oriented toward the front of the airplane, are almost no longer visible. The GEIPAN classifies this case "B": very probable observation of an airplane seen head-on, on approach to Le Havre-Octeville.