Sighting in Burgnac, April 7, 2026

At about 10:20 pm, the witness was outside their property when they noticed an elongated, segmented shape in the night sky, resembling a compartmentalized cylinder, which could also be described as a white cigar or caterpillar. It moved along a north-south axis, then disappeared toward the southeast. The sighting lasted between 20 and 30 seconds.

GEIPAN rated the case as having low strangeness and medium consistency: two witnesses are mentioned, but there was only one direct account and no photo. The investigation showed that the witness had seen all or some of the 18 Qianfan SpaceSail 109 to 116 satellites, launched less than seven hours earlier by a Chinese Long March 8 rocket into a near-polar orbit. The Sun, already set for the witness, lit these satellites directly while they were in an intermediate orbit before joining the Qianfan SpaceSail satellite internet megaconstellation. Reflections off part of their structure made them visible.

Many other accounts, in Europe and in another GEIPAN file, described the same general appearance. The orbital data gathered confirmed that this group of satellites passed within the witness's view along the trajectory described. The case was classified A.