Sighting in Cannes, January 1, 1980

Between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m., a motorist driving westward on the A8 motorway noticed a motionless point of light in the clear sky, toward the west. Looking through binoculars, the witness saw the very bright point as a ball of string, with black squares visible between the strands. The witness photographed it, but the negatives, handed over to the gendarmerie later, were transparent and showed no image. No other testimony was collected.

The case had been classed "C" by GEPAN in 1980 and was later re-examined by GEIPAN, using new software tools and the investigative experience gained since then. The re-examination showed that what the witness described (duration, size, color) matched the planet Venus, which was indeed present in that part of the sky, though the witness did not mention it. According to GEIPAN, the witness's eyesight was not the issue; rather, the interpretation of what they saw was affected by their astonishment and by night driving. The case, of low strangeness, is now classed A: a mistaken identification of Venus.