Sighting in Honfleur, August 19, 1980
Calvados, Normandie, France
Sighting on August 19, 1980 in Honfleur (Calvados, France). GEIPAN identified the phenomenon with certainty (class A).
What happened
At about 9:30 p.m., a group of young people saw a luminous mass moving slowly across the sky, swaying as it went. The object was light in colour, with a rounded, bright upper part. It was flying at the altitude of light aircraft and heading from north to south.
Suddenly it caught fire and fell sharply. The witnesses assumed it had crashed somewhere nearby, but they could not say where.
The gendarmerie later found part of the object caught in a tree. The debris showed it was a small hot-air balloon made of tissue paper and wire, built by an amateur. Its owner was never found. GEIPAN classed the case as A: the sighting was a small hot-air balloon catching fire.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- August 19, 1980
- Location
- Honfleur · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- A
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 1980-08-00789
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.