Sighting in Arras, September 25, 2011

The witness saw an orange, saucer-shaped light in the night sky, described as a large, flat object, moving near a helicopter. The observation lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. One other person was with the witness at first, and three more people then saw the end of the event as the object moved away.

GEIPAN received the questionnaire by email nearly four months after the event, so it was no longer possible to file a statement with the gendarmerie. None of the other people present sent GEIPAN an account.

The investigation favoured the explanation of a Thai lantern, but the usual clues that would support it were too weak: the wind direction was imprecise, and the description of the object moving away left some doubt. The helicopter, which had probably taken off from the hospital, merely drew the witness's attention to the sky. The case, with little strangeness and little consistency (a single testimony, not very precise), was classified C because of insufficient information and a lack of other testimonies.