An account in Aisne, France

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 as type "B" cases, which are now being re-examined, with the sole aim of being more relevant in the conclusions. Thanks to new technical means (software) and the investigation experience acquired over all these recent years, this re-examination sometimes leads to new remarks or even a change of classification explained in an investigation note. This observation case, previously classified B and named COUCY LE CHÂTEAU (02) 1980, is part of a set of re-examined cases (see the investigation note). On March 2, 1980, between 9:45 PM and 10:00 PM, four witnesses in Saint-Paul-Aux-Bois observe, in the direction of Salency (02), a luminous object whose luminous intensity and color vary. For three witnesses (T1, T2, T3), the object is moving along a descending trajectory. For T4, the object remains stationary. The gendarmes, called at 9:55 PM, go to the scene immediately but observe nothing particular to the West in the starry sky. This case is fairly consistent (four witnesses), and the description of the observed UAP is fairly precise. The sincerity and credibility of the witnesses have never been called into question. The described phenomenon presents many common characteristics (observation duration, shape, size, color) with a perfectly known astronomical object: Venus at sunset. Moreover, Venus was setting on the horizon in the direction indicated by the witnesses. It is not the visual perception of the witnesses that is in question, but the interpretation that the witnesses make of their observation through their feelings (fatigue, surprise). In GEIPAN's current classification, this case of low strangeness is classified as UAP A, an observation linked to a misidentification with Venus at sunset.