Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France · 2015-06-10 · from the GEIPAN archive
Pilot witness in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France
On June 10, 2015 at around 12:20 AM, a person hears a deep sound coming from outside. From their terrace, the witness observes for about 3 minutes a flying craft emitting a noise resembling a lawnmower engine. The object is circular, dark in color, and surrounded by a fluorescent green halo. The object comes from the West and heads East in a straight line before disappearing into the low clouds on that stormy day. Only one testimony was collected.
The description of a fluorescent green flying craft making a lawnmower noise suggests a paramotor (motorized paraglider) flying at night, the wing illuminated by a spotlight behind the pilot (See an example on Night flight with headlight).
A paramotor club in Manosque was consulted to find out if this practice was common in the area: it was answered that night flying with a paramotor is not practiced in the zone to their knowledge. These flights are highly regulated, tolerated by special exemption (see the air regulations for Free Flight) in clear weather and on nights near the full moon, all conditions not met that day (cloudy weather, last quarter).
This hypothesis, which nevertheless matches the witness's description fairly well, cannot therefore be confirmed, and thus turns out to be extremely unlikely, but not impossible.
GEIPAN classifies this case as "C" due to lack of information and cross-referencing.
On December 5, 2015 at 5:55 PM, a motorist and his son observe for 1 minute a stationary yellow-orange phenomenon as bright as Venus in the sky. No particular noise is heard. The witness tur…
On May 31, 2015, around 12:50-12:55 AM, two witnesses (T1 driver, T2 passenger to his right) on duty in a van were in the town of Silly-Le-Long (60) and got onto the Nationale 2 expressway h…
On April 12, 2015 between 1:30 PM and 2:15 PM, a witness on a terrace was watching planes high in the sky when he saw a dark object shaped like a flattened lens moving very quickly at low al…
On March 15, 2015 at around 8:45 PM, many people were able to observe the passage in the sky of a colored luminous phenomenon. GEIPAN received several testimonies, including one from a pilot…
On March 5, 2015, two witnesses driving in a car successively observe in the sky several phenomena of different shapes that they cannot explain. Only one testimony is collected.
The witness…
On May 7, 2015 at around 9:45 PM, two people are intrigued by a luminous phenomenon in the sky. Powerful lights (white, red, and orange) seem to turn around a craft. No noise is heard during…
both described 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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