An account in Pas-de-Calais, France

On Monday, October 31, 2016 at around 4:30 PM, several people in a veranda observed the passage in the clear sky of 2 ovoid objects of cream or white color. The objects gradually moved away and were then hidden from the witnesses' view. Only one testimony was collected. The witness probably saw planes passing in the air corridor (returning to France from W to E) above Gravelines, 50 km away. The movement of the planes gives the appearance (witness description) of passing above Boulogne and Saint-Leonard. At 4:30 PM, the lighting by the sun is indeed behind the witness and has the particularity of reflecting almost perpendicularly on the fuselage of certain planes (mirror effect of the sun due to their own orientation and heading). In this configuration, the plane presents itself in an ovoid shape without wings, because the wing is merged with the fuselage. The planes fly at 10 km altitude at a distance of 50 km and thus appear at an elevation around 10°, which seems consistent with the PAN reading on the witness's photo. Their speed is variable as well as their distance, which can thus give the effect of two parallel horizontal lines at different speeds. The length of the plane being between 20 and 80 m, one can have angular openings on the order of 1/20 to 1/5 of that of the full moon, an opening still sufficient to distinguish an ovoid shape. Note that the witness did not live in the area and may have been surprised, whereas this visibility of planes (even fleeting due to the mirror particularities with the sun) does not surprise the residents and neighbors. Consequently, GEIPAN classifies this case as B: probable observation of planes.