Sighting in Douvrin, October 30, 1993

Over about two weeks in early November 1993, the owners of a house found flattened, crushed grass in their garden on three occasions. First came a winding line roughly 8 metres long and 40 cm wide, then a second line of about ten metres, and finally a circle where the two lines met. A neighbour was asked to come and look at the marks. The neighbour also noted that dogs had barked abnormally for about fifteen days, around 1:30 a.m.

One of the owners added that, sometime between 8 and 14 November, around one in the morning, they had seen a yellowish light moving about 60 cm above the ground. The witnesses reported the events late, and the gendarmerie went to the site on 17 November 1993.

The investigation concluded that this was a case of ground traces with no aerospace phenomenon observed. The light could not be linked to the traces: it was reported after the traces had been found, there was nothing strange about it in itself, and the photo could not show whether it was above the witnesses' plot or on the ground farther away in other plots. It probably would not have been mentioned had the traces not already worried the witnesses. Looking for the cause of ground traces with no concurrent aerospace phenomenon is outside GEIPAN's remit. Mushrooms, thieves, animals and neighbours' pranks were given as examples of possible origins, without any being singled out. The case, first classified D, was reclassified C: unusable, as it goes beyond GEIPAN's competence.