Sighting in Étoges, October 4, 2009

The witness, a farmer, saw a large object pass in the distance. It was about the size of a semi-trailer truck and covered in numerous lights. No sound was heard during the sighting. The witness was not wearing their glasses at the time and so could not make out the vehicle in detail. Even so, their first impression was of a combine harvester driving with its work lights on, which is quite likely in an area of farmland. The vehicle was travelling along the road, at a speed the witness put at 80 km/h.

GEIPAN noted that this speed is clearly too high for a combine harvester on its own, but it is not unusual for a large exceptional-load convoy carrying a machine of that kind. The lack of noise is explained by the wind, which carried the sound away from the witness. The case was classified B: it was very probably a large land vehicle travelling on the road.