Sighting in La Ferrière, January 13, 2017

On a Friday at about 5:45 pm, a motorist who was driving noticed an intense white light in a clear sky. The glow vanished for 15 to 20 seconds, then came back brighter than the first time. The same thing happened again a little further along the route. Only one account was collected. The witness themself suggested it might be sunlight reflecting off aircraft, but was surprised that the light moved so little. They admitted that movement is hard to judge at such a distance, and they were also at the wheel.

The GEIPAN investigation supported this explanation. That evening, several aircraft followed one another in the same direction as the witness, heading toward the sun (about 240°). The aircraft, the sun and the witness were almost in the same plane, and with the sun on the horizon, a mirror effect could occur off the underside of the fuselages and especially the wings. The effect depends on geometry, and as the aircraft moved, the changing geometry accounts for the light appearing and disappearing. The 20-second gap probably corresponded to the effect ending on one aircraft and starting on another. Continuous observation of the same aircraft therefore probably did not exceed one or two minutes. An aircraft first seen at 30° elevation dropped to 20° after one minute and 15° after two, a change too small to be noticed. The reconstruction reproduces the end of the sighting with two aircraft, one farther away and further south than the other, which looked to the witness like a light lower and to the left. GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of aircraft.