Sighting in Frontignan, September 2, 2022

At 6:35 a.m., with a violent thunderstorm approaching, a local resident stepped out onto their terrace. Daylight had not yet arrived, and the sky was heavily overcast with a low ceiling. The witness noticed a very bright green light, flashing about once per second, above the roof of a neighbouring house. Its lack of movement intrigued them. It sat beneath large black clouds, which led the witness to think it was not very high up.

They took a photo with their mobile phone, but the zoom was too limited, so they went to fetch binoculars. When they came back, the light had moved closer to them. They left again to get a camera with a zoom lens, but by the time they returned it had disappeared. The witness could not identify what they had seen.

The investigation found that the description pointed very strongly to a drone. Several drone-flying training centres and drone photography companies operate around Frontignan. One of them, contacted by GEIPAN, considered the drone hypothesis realistic, noting that the green colour and the flashing were highly characteristic. For a Mavic-type drone, for example, flashing green lights correspond to a secure flight mode. The company also reported a recent increase in drone flights in the region. The residual strangeness was low, and GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of a drone.