Sighting in (dep) Cher, August 18, 1987

At around 10:15 pm, three witnesses watched a luminous phenomenon in the sky from their homes, toward the north-northwest: one resident of one town, and two residents of a neighbouring town. The first described two lights moving along together without a sound. The second saw a bright white glow shaped like a luminous cigar, which turned and headed off toward Vierzon. The third saw a large, bright white glow; looking more closely, they thought they could make out two slightly smaller white glows and a flashing red light beneath it. This witness also confirmed the turn and the departure toward Vierzon. All three were convinced they had seen a "UFO".

In the re-examination, the GEIPAN noted that the descriptions differ, especially between the first witness and the other two, so it is not certain they all saw the same thing. The witnesses had also talked among themselves before giving their statements. The sighting looks much like a mistaken identification of an aircraft: several lights, strong brightness and a change of heading. A reconstruction shows that flights from Paris to West Africa regularly pass through the area and begin a turn toward the south-southwest near Nançay, which matches the turn described. The landing lights of one or more aircraft, switched on after takeoff or before landing, could account for the dominant white light, the cigar-like shape and the flashing red light. A lack of noise is common in this kind of misidentification, and the wind, blowing across the line of sight, did not help carry sound. It would, however, have required an unusual flight for the area, at low or medium altitude, which cannot be checked thirty years later.

No aeronautical records were taken at the time, nor any measurement of the phenomenon's angular position or apparent size. The case was classified C: the aircraft hypothesis is plausible, but the weak consistency of the testimonies means it can be neither confirmed nor labelled unexplained.