Sighting in Bidart, September 19, 2015

A witness was looking at the stars, the Little Dipper in particular, when they noticed three grey spots of light moving together in a straight line. The three points stayed fixed relative to one another and formed an isosceles triangle in the sky. The witness saw no trail and no halo, and heard no sound. The spots faded out gradually over about one second, after 8 seconds of observation in total. Right afterwards, the witness followed an aircraft that crossed the path the phenomenon had taken. No other testimony was gathered.

The witness could not recall the exact time but mentioned a rugby match between France and Italy. This clue allowed the investigator to set the observation at 10:31 pm. Aeronautical explanations (an aircraft) and space-related ones (satellites, a rocket launch) could therefore be examined.

GEIPAN considered the case of medium strangeness but sufficiently consistent. It sees a possible misidentification of a flock of birds lit by a light source on the ground. The spots were not point-like and moved with a high angular speed, both of which fit this explanation. In addition, two sources could have lit birds from below in the direction the witness indicated. The case is classified B: possible misidentification of birds lit by a nocturnal light source.