Sighting in Bissezeele, October 22, 1997

At about 8:22 a.m., a witness driving between medical house calls noticed a very bright, rectangular glow in the sky, white with a yellowish tint. The witness stopped at a patient's home to provide care. Afterwards, both of them saw that the glow was still there and appeared to have moved closer to the house. The patient's husband, who stayed indoors, also saw it through the window. The witness then drove on and, a little further along, saw a second luminous object, slightly larger. Both objects disappeared at around 8:40 a.m.

When the case was re-examined, the GEIPAN found the testimonies to be very weak. Only the first witness came forward spontaneously; the patient gave a statement only to gendarmes who visited the home. The accounts differ on the number of times they went outside, on the shape (rectangular and then disc-shaped for the first witness, no clear shape from the patient), on movement, and on the disappearance. Little is known about where the object was in the sky: probably east or southeast. At 8:25 a.m. the sun, slightly below the horizon, was not yet visible but could brightly light up an isolated cloud in the blue morning sky. A cloud could account for the bright appearance, the disappearance and the reappearance in a different shape; the impression of movement may have come from the car's own motion.

The case, first classified D, is now classified B: probable observation of clouds. The GEIPAN adopted this explanation because nothing argues against it.