Gard, France · 2016-08-12 · from the GEIPAN archive
White light in Gard, France
On August 12, 2016 at around 10:30 PM, a witness is looking at the stars and is intrigued by the passage of a bright white light that seems to zigzag slightly. The witness calls their partner, who makes the same observation. The phenomenon crosses the sky from West to East and then disappears.
The witness saw the International Space Station (ISS). Their indications in the sky match the ISS trajectory well, except for the disappearance, which was lower in elevation than indicated, unless a cloud ended the observation. The end of the ISS's visibility (the end of its illumination by the sun) can seem strange, due to its rapidity, or on the contrary here due to its slowness ("a candle wick going out in 2 or 3 seconds"). The impressions of oscillations around the trajectory, which also give a sense of strangeness because a satellite's trajectory is regular, are well-known phenomena of autokinetic perception.
Consequently, GEIPAN classifies the case as A: observation of the passage of the ISS.
On July 13, 2016 at around 11:30 PM, a witness observes for 30 seconds a very bright white light stationary in the southwest of the clear night sky. Only one testimony is collected.
The witn…
On the evening of July 16, 2010 at 11:30 PM, two people observe the passage of two luminous phenomena in the sky. Only one witness will report having seen a very bright white glow similar to…
On August 10, 1998, around midnight, a very large number of witnesses, including a train driver, observed in the sky a triangular shape with two red lights and one very bright white light. O…
On February 23, 1981, a witness leaving their home saw two large glowing balls in the sky. For a few seconds, they emitted a very intense and blinding light. Very surprised by the phenomenon…
On October 24, 2012 at 7:50 PM, a female driver's attention was drawn by the rapid passage of a luminous phenomenon in the sky. The witness describes a bright white light that, on a descendi…
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-examine…
both described white light
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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.
Anomaly