Sighting in Anor, May 31, 2023

Around 11 p.m., a witness and their spouse were in their garden when they saw a phenomenon approach from the north. It looked like a "tube" or "parallelepiped" carrying several white lights. The witness counted 32 of them, arranged in pairs and separated by dark gaps. Just after the object passed over the garden, the witness felt something brush past. They took a slightly blurred photo and made a sketch. They themselves thought of a Starlink satellite train, launched shortly before by a Falcon 9 rocket from California, but the trajectory and altitude seemed unusual for that kind of sighting. What they saw looked like a single large object, noticeably lower than satellites would be. Theirs was the only questionnaire received, and it arrived late, in April 2024. Its consistency is nonetheless good: a second witness was present, although they did not fill in a questionnaire, and the photo allows the phenomenon to be identified.

The investigation confirmed the Starlink satellite train hypothesis. Such a train was indeed above the witnesses at that moment, and its elongated shape, white color, straight path and generally north-to-south motion all matched the description. The launch was to a polar orbit inclined at 70°, followed by a curved path over France toward the south-southeast, which differs from the direction the witness expected. The gap between that and the path they reported is probably due to the difficulty of orienting oneself precisely at night. The witness also misjudged the altitude and size, and perceived a single object rather than a series of separate ones, an illusion typical of similar objects on a converging path. The brushing sensation was most likely a gust of wind, which they linked to the phenomenon. The 32 lights counted are close to the 40 satellites tallied by an outside observer. GEIPAN classed the case as A.