Sighting in Émancé, September 14, 2024

One evening, a witness and their children were looking at the Moon when they noticed unusual navigation lights behind a small wood. The witness recognized a military helicopter, probably a Tigre, passing slightly above the Moon. A few minutes later, a second object followed a similar path toward the Moon. Its navigation lights were visible, and an elongated, "cigar"-shaped silhouette stood out in the moonlight, with a white light at the front. It took one to two seconds to cross the Moon, and no noise was noticed. No photo of the object was taken.

The GEIPAN rated the case as having low strangeness and good consistency: there were several witnesses, and the account, though the only one, was fairly complete. The navigation lights strongly suggest an aircraft. A reconstruction of the air traffic did not turn up the helicopter the witness described, but it did identify the object as a Vueling A321, whose path and time of passage matched. Its apparent trajectory confirms that it did pass in front of the Moon. The case is classified A: observation of an airliner.