Sighting in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, January 2, 2012

A witness noticed an object at about 4:30 pm. It was triangular and carried flickering red and yellow lights. It stayed in one place, though at times it seemed to rotate on itself. The witness alerted the air navigation service at Chavenay, whose staff also saw the phenomenon. The observation lasted around three hours. No other testimony was collected.

When the GEIPAN phoned that service, its contact said they had seen a very bright point of light. A quick analysis suggested this might simply have been the planet Venus, and not the object the witness reported. Jupiter was also near the Moon that evening. Because Venus was fairly low on the horizon, scintillation made its colors vary considerably. When contacted again, the witness said they had clearly identified Venus and that the luminous object was close to Venus's direction, but that it stayed fixed for two hours. They could not give the exact direction or the apparent height above the horizon. The viewing direction corresponds to the Château de Plaisir (Les Saussaies), where a lit captive balloon could have given the same visual impression, but the GEIPAN could not verify this hypothesis.

The GEIPAN classified the case as C, for lack of information: the testimony was imprecise about direction, the case had little strangeness (an object fixed for two hours), there were no photos despite the length of the sighting, and no other witnesses came forward.