Sighting in Le Pellerin, June 11, 1994

Shortly before midnight, a woman was driving along a small country road when she noticed an object on her right, moving parallel to her car at very low altitude. She described it as lemon-shaped, with a "cable" on top and covered in many flashing multicoloured lights. She lost sight of it, then picked it up again and could follow its movements once more. It vanished quickly. She did not say how long the sighting lasted, and afterwards she tried to see it again without success. Only one testimony was collected, and the gendarmerie took photographs at the scene.

The case was first classified D, then reexamined. GEIPAN concluded it was probably a misidentified radio-controlled model aircraft or helicopter flown from the nearby flying club. The direction of observation matched the club's authorised flight zone, and the very low height fitted the altitude limits for model aircraft. The flashing lights, mostly in colours used in air navigation, resembled anti-collision lights. At night, from a moving car with the windows closed, the witness could see only the lights, not the shape, and heard no sound. The "cable" could be part of the model's structure, such as the tail fin, strongly lit. The object's apparent doubling could come from a brief change in the model's orientation or from masking by vegetation. Its apparent following of the car and avoidance of obstacles is explained by the "following ball" illusion and the lack of any distance reference. Right-angle trajectories are common for acrobatic model aircraft. The disappearance was probably a sudden masking behind the dense vegetation around the club. Night flying of a model is less surprising in 1994, when rules were less restrictive. An aeroplane and the mast of a boat on the Loire were ruled out. Despite a single witness and no photo or video, the consistency is sufficient to support the hypothesis, so the case is classified B.