Sighting in Belvoir, July 30, 2017

Two friends were sitting in lounge chairs on an outdoor terrace, looking at the stars at night, when a dark object passed silently overhead in a clear sky. It seemed to be made up of many triangular elements. It quickly disappeared behind the house.

The triangular shape, both for the whole and for each of its parts, was described mainly by the first witness; the second mentioned it far less. The way the object appeared and its apparent changes added a little strangeness. Both witnesses had watched calmly and answered very carefully during the field investigation. Their accounts corroborate each other, apart from the usual differences in estimates between two people.

GEIPAN favored the explanation of a flock of migrating birds, which fits well with the sequence of events described, with the differences between the two descriptions, and with the witnesses' differing reactions and feelings revealed in the cognitive interviews. Some strangeness remains: angular size and distance were uncertain, and it is very hard to confirm afterwards that birds actually flew past. It also remains unexplained why the witnesses did not recognize birds. The case is classified B, probable misidentification of birds.