Photographed in Drôme, France

On August 6, 2016 at around 9 p.m., a female driver and her passenger observed two stationary luminous phenomena in the sky. The driver stopped to take two photographs with a camera. Only one testimony was collected. The witness saw two UAPs. A luminous trail that does not move (IMG_0044) and a black spot to the right of an airplane trail (IMG_0045). The black spot was not observed visually and only appears in the photo. It is most likely a nearby insect. The visual description and the photo of UAP1 are characteristic of an airplane trail. Moreover, the airplane is perfectly identified (Flightradar) in the typical configuration for producing very bright trails (plane heading due west at sunset). The strangeness came from the testimony of a UAP "stationary in the sky for 11 minutes," which could not correspond to an airplane (over such a duration, an airplane would move at least 70° to 90° across the sky). The witness, contacted by phone, clarifies things quite differently compared to her written statement. She saw UAP1 while driving, then stopped and photographed UAP1 (IMG_0044), then took photo 2 (IMG_0045). She was looking for UAP1 in the viewfinder for photo 2 (it was not there because photo 2 turns out to be highly zoomed and framed elsewhere) and remembers that her friend then told her that the UAP had disappeared from the sky. They then continued to watch the sky, without ever seeing UAP1 again, and the whole thing lasted 11 minutes by the watch. Thus, the actual observation duration of UAP1 is much shorter, say the time to stop the vehicle (at about 400 m) and to get the camera (the witness specifies it was within reach because she had just been taking photos), so maybe 2 to 3 minutes. At the time of photo 1, the identified airplane is at an elevation of about 8° or 9° (distance 70 km); 3 minutes earlier, it was at an elevation of 4° or 5° (distance 115 km). This angular variation is small enough to be perceived as immobility, especially when the observation is not continuous. The disappearance of the UAP is perfectly explained by its entry into darkness (end of its direct illumination by the setting sun). GEIPAN classifies the case as A: airplane condensation trail. This testimony illustrates the imprecision, or exaggeration ("immobility for 11 minutes," "These 2 phenomena, we observed them for exactly 11 minutes"), that can taint the description of an observation, often without the witness's knowledge, particularly in a context of emotion or excitement ("Heart pounding, excitement").