Sighting in La Ciotat, April 21, 1982

At about 9 p.m., a motorist noticed above the gulf a formation of at least six white luminous balls arranged in a V. They seemed motionless for about fifteen seconds, and no sound was heard. Then the whole formation vanished instantly. No one else came forward, and the witness produced a drawing. Angular measurements, such as the size of the objects and their height above the horizon, are missing.

At the time, the gendarmes questioned the person in charge of air surveillance at Salon-de-Provence, who said that no aircraft from the base was flying. The GEIPAN has since reexamined the case, originally classified D, and considers that everything points to the Patrouille de France flying in formation. Only its powerful nose light would have been visible from a distance, as the aircraft headed toward the witness. That official may not have been the right person to rule on the matter, or may not have been allowed to share the information. The Patrouille de France was in La Ciotat the following day, and it puts at 60% the probability that it was there that evening, though it has no archives to confirm this. Several points match: there are several V formations, the patrol has up to 8 or 9 aircraft, Alphajet lights are white or yellowish, and at a distance of several tens of kilometres no sound would be heard. Aircraft approaching head-on look motionless over 15 seconds. A change of heading would then have made them invisible to the naked eye, hence the sudden disappearance. The case's consistency is rather low, but sufficient for this hypothesis. The GEIPAN classified it A: very probably a squadron of aircraft.