Sighting in Bandol, December 1, 2013
Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Sighting on December 1, 2013 in Bandol (Var, France). GEIPAN identified the phenomenon with certainty: it was an aircraft contrail (class A).
What happened
Around 5 p.m., some people walking along the customs officers' path noticed a bright glow in the sky, west of the sun. It stayed visible after sunset and revealed two fixed, yellow-orange points of light, visible to the naked eye. The points faded after about 15 minutes. Only one witness account was collected.
The red-orange trails seen at sunset closely resembled aircraft contrails, made brilliant by the backlighting. A flightradar24 record, attached to the file, shows which aircraft were visible that day. In very good visibility, a contrail can be seen from up to 120 km away. At that distance, with the aircraft moving away, the trail was seen at a very shallow angle, which flattened the perspective of the phenomenon and made its movement seem slow.
GEIPAN classified the case as A: the sighting was an aircraft contrail, fully identified.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- December 1, 2013
- Location
- Bandol · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- A
- Explanation
- Aircraft
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2013-12-08613
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.