Sighting in Châtenay-Malabry, August 19, 2012

At around 8:30 pm on a Sunday evening, the witness noticed two moving points of light in the sky and was intrigued by the way they moved. At first, they behaved like aircraft travelling along the witness's line of sight. Their color and brightness resembled the landing lights of airliners. Toward the end of the sighting, the first point seemed to turn at a "right angle" before fading out in the night, while the witness was looking at it near the zenith.

The GEIPAN investigation noted that the area overflown is frequently crossed by all kinds of civil and military aircraft and lies close to airports. The right-angle turn seems at first glance incompatible with an aircraft seen at the zenith, but it is explained by a common perceptual illusion affecting moving points of light that vanish into the darkness. The aeronautical data were no longer available when the investigation took place, so the hypothesis could not be formally verified. The case was classified B: probable sighting of an aircraft.