Sighting in Burnhaupt-le-Bas, November 24, 2024

In the early evening, from the first floor of their home, the witness noticed unusual lights in an almost completely dark sky. They were on the eastern horizon, toward the Black Forest in Germany. At first, four light sources in a line were visible. While the witness went to get a device to film, one of them went out.

When the witness came back, the scene had changed: two new sources had appeared to the north, on the left. One was very bright and seemed stationary. Two other moving lights quickly approached it, then went out at the same moment. Only the stationary source remained, behind a small group of trees. The video showed it was not motionless: the white light drifted slowly north, then reversed toward the south. After passing the line of the trees, it followed a nearly level path until it disappeared.

The witness was alone, but reported the sighting to GEIPAN very quickly, and the video could be analysed. Flightradar24 data, compared with the footage using the phone's synchronised clock, showed that an aircraft on approach to Basel-Mulhouse airport matched the white light's movements exactly, in both space and time. Two other aircraft in the area explain the two moving lights that suddenly went out. The four aligned points at the start most likely correspond to snow groomers on the slopes of the Windeck-Hinterzarten ski area, whose season had opened two days earlier. The case was classified A on the basis of phase 3: an aircraft on approach to Basel-Mulhouse airport.