Sighting in Bourth, October 10, 1997

At about 9:15 p.m., a witness standing outside their home noticed a motionless spherical glow in the sky to the east. They went on to describe several changes in how the light moved across the sky. Their spouse came over and also watched these unusual movements, which were accompanied by a dull noise. Both witnesses lost sight of the light when it passed behind the roof of the house. The gendarmerie collected no other testimony.

GEIPAN rated the case as moderate in strangeness and consistency: there were two witnesses, but their accounts contradicted each other and there was no photograph. The investigation concluded it was probably a misidentification of a military transport aircraft, a Hercules C-130 that had just taken off from a nearby air base. The bright yellowish light matched its landing lights, which were mistaken for a single light at great distance. The apparent stops and movements matched stepped climbs and heading corrections. The change in apparent size depended on how closely the aircraft was lined up with the witnesses' line of sight, and the disappearance matched a turn. The anti-collision lights could have been off, which explains the lack of flashing, and the wingtip lights were hidden. The dull sound is typical of this aircraft and differed from the fighters and airliners usually heard there. The row of orange-pink or reddish lights seen later matched the C-130's various lights. Evreux air base had recorded no flights, so the aircraft more likely came from Orléans. The case was classified B.