Sighting in Assevillers, June 3, 2013

On an evening in early June 2013, the witness noticed a luminous phenomenon moving toward the south-east, which they found intriguing. It was a very white light, about four times larger than a star, passing close to their home. It then made very fast zigzag movements, which the witness drew in a sketch, before leaving their field of view. The time of this sighting varied between accounts: 23:18 (and between 23:15 and midnight) on the questionnaire, 22:48 in an email, and around 23:30 in the official statement. The witness saw the same phenomenon again two days later, at exactly 23:45.

Checking with the Calsky software showed that the sighting two days later was definitely the International Space Station (ISS). For the first evening, the times given were too imprecise to say for certain that the witness had also seen the ISS. The changes of direction described seem to contradict the ISS explanation, but they can be explained by the autokinetic illusion, a perceptual effect that is common when people watch the ISS. GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable sighting of the ISS, with a slight doubt remaining because the time was imprecise.