Sighting in Brienne-le-Château, February 5, 2009

A driver noticed an intense glow in the sky between 8:45 and 9:00 p.m. Intrigued, they pulled over and took several photographs with their camera. The observation lasted ten to twelve minutes, and throughout that time the glow seemed to stay in place. The sighting was later covered in two newspapers, L'Est Eclair and Libération Champagne.

GEIPAN judged the case to have low strangeness but sufficient consistency, thanks to the many precise, coherent details and the photographs. The investigation concluded that it was a classic misidentification of the planet Venus. Venus was indeed in the part of the sky the witness was watching and was particularly bright, something the witness did not mention. According to GEIPAN, the witness's eyesight was not at fault; rather, their interpretation of what they saw was shaped by how they felt (surprise, driving at night). The case was classified A.