Sighting in Baccarat, October 14, 2017

At about 9 p.m., a witness who was looking at the sky noticed around ten white points, evenly spaced and forming a curve, moving along without a sound. Just behind them, they could make out a rounded, opaque shape. Only one account was collected.

The investigation concluded that this was very probably a flock of migrating birds, probably greylag geese, flying at high altitude. Several points support this: the date matches the autumn migration, the location lies within a migration corridor, and the direction of travel is the one these birds usually take at that time of year. The number of points fits the size of a formation, which takes the classic V or arc shape. The slow, steady, straight progression, with estimated altitudes and speeds, matches what is known of greylag geese. Finally, the dull, faintly luminous white of the points is consistent with the white underside of geese reflecting the weak ambient light.

The "dark mass" at the center of the group, the main oddity of the case, was explained by a physiological effect of night observation: when objects are watched in peripheral vision, stars temporarily disappear from central vision. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as A: observation of a group of migrating birds, probably greylag geese.