Sighting in Lançon-Provence, July 3, 2015

At around 10 p.m., during a family gathering, the witness went to the far end of the garden with their son. A deep, muffled rumble was heard, and the witness then saw a moving mass above the trees of the neighbouring house. Roughly a hundred lights, none of them flashing, shone beneath the mass. The witness wanted to alert the others, but the loud noise made that impossible. No one else in the group saw the phenomenon, although everyone heard the rumble. Only one account was therefore collected.

The investigators considered the sighting highly atypical, but the engine noise pointed towards an aeronautical explanation. The garden lies in line with the runways at Salon-de-Provence, where the Patrouille de France takes off and is very active at that time of year preparing its displays. The Patrouille confirmed a take-off at 9:49 p.m. for a flight of about an hour. The south-easterly wind recorded at Marignane means the aircraft would have taken off into the wind, passing almost directly over the witness. The eight aircraft take off in groups of four. With at least four navigation lights each, that makes at least 32 points of light, and the witness probably experienced the classic illusion of a single dark object carrying all the lights.

The GEIPAN classified the case as B: a probable sighting of the Patrouille de France shortly after take-off. Two discrepancies remain: the time (10 p.m. versus 9:49 p.m.) and the number of lights (about a hundred versus 32). Without the aircraft's precise minute-by-minute trajectory, the exact scenario could not be established, but the coincidence between the events is very strong.