Sighting in Cergy, November 26, 2020

At sunset, a witness took photos from the window of their fifth-floor apartment. They noticed "clouds" of unusual shape in the sky, stretched out vertically, and zoomed in to try to work out what they were. A first large "patch" appeared, then a second about a minute later, and a third two minutes after that. The witness thought it might be a "meteorite" entering the atmosphere. This was the only testimony collected, though several photos of the phenomenon exist.

The GEIPAN investigation ruled out the meteorite explanation. The phenomenon stayed visible for at least three minutes, whereas a natural atmospheric entry, with a fireball followed by a fall, lasts only a few seconds. In addition, no fireball or meteorite fall was recorded in France at that time. In the photos, the appearance is entirely typical of an aircraft contrail, and specifically that of a twin-engine jet: it is double, and its color resembles scattered sunlight. A reconstruction on Flightradar24 shows that flight AF718, a Boeing 777 flying from Paris to Dakar, had just reached cruising altitude and was heading away to the southwest, a direction matching that of the phenomenon.

The case was classified A: the contrail of an airliner.