Sighting in Authezat, July 4, 2012

Around 7:20 a.m., a motorist driving on the A75 motorway noticed a dark, round-to-oval object in the sky, motionless in the direction of the Sancy. About six minutes later, on the D2013 between Saint-Amand-Tallende and Aydat, near Saint-Saturnin, the witness saw the object again. This time they also made out five other shapes moving slowly at low altitude. The witness thought they might be fighter jets. While heading toward Chadrat, they lost sight of all the objects. The sighting lasted 8 minutes in total, and no other witness account was collected.

GEIPAN judged the account to be of average consistency: it lacked precision, came from a single witness and was not backed by any photo. The sighting was considered only slightly strange, since the object could well have been quite ordinary. Three hypotheses were considered: a aerostat, a tethered balloon, or a free-flight craft (microlight, paraglider, etc.). All three fitted the observation poorly. Since no angular measurements were available, the estimates of the object's size, distance and altitude could not be checked either. The case was therefore classified C, for lack of sufficient information.