Sighting in Gauchy, July 20, 2013

Around midnight, a witness and their spouse noticed that the streetlight on their street had gone out. They then saw a craft pass by without making a sound, with five red, orange and white lights underneath it that rotated clockwise. It travelled from southwest to northeast at low altitude, moving slowly and at a steady speed. The streetlight came back on once the craft had moved away. The sighting lasted about ten minutes. Only one account was collected.

The lights described and the way the craft moved were reminiscent of an aircraft on its approach to land, since such aircraft are often fairly quiet and carry many lights, flashing or steady, in several colours. However, there is no major airfield nearby. GEIPAN did not handle the case quickly enough to obtain radar tracks of aircraft flying over the area, so this hypothesis could not be checked. According to Météociel, the wind blew from the north to northeast, against the direction of travel observed, so the object could not have been carried by the wind. The link between the streetlights going out and the phenomenon was considered intriguing, but it was not established. With no precise evidence beyond the testimony, GEIPAN classified the case "C", insufficient data.