Sighting in Fréjus, August 25, 2017

Two witnesses noticed two coloured lights in the night sky at around 2:15 a.m., a time one of them confirmed. One light was red and the other green, and both drew their attention. At first the lights seemed stationary, always side by side or touching, and they oscillated. They then moved off together, changing course, and were quickly hidden by the landscape. During the final movement, towards the right, only the green light remained visible. No noise was heard. One witness ruled out a plane or helicopter because of the silence and the lack of flashing, but the other also mentioned a green light that flashed.

The GEIPAN concluded that the witnesses very probably saw an aircraft and its navigation lights. An aircraft crossing towards the right shows only its green light, because the fuselage hides the red one on the left. The lack of noise can be explained by distance, which the witnesses may have underestimated, by an easterly wind blowing against the sound while they looked west, and by strong visual attention, which can come at the expense of hearing. Navigation lights do not flash, unlike the white anti-collision strobes, which are not mandatory. The hovering, oscillating behaviour points more towards a helicopter, seen first mostly from its left side, then partly turning, then from its right side only. It does not appear in commercial traffic records, but those are not fully reliable, and it could have been a private, civil-security, medical or military flight. The radar-trace request was made too late, and low-altitude flights do not always leave radar traces. The case was classified B: very probably an aircraft.