Sighting in Les Essarts, November 26, 2007

Between 6:20 and 6:35 pm, a driver was heading home by car with their son. In a clear sky, the mother noticed three yellow points of light arranged in a triangle, with a red light at the center. The phenomenon seemed low and did not move. Both witnesses also heard a rumbling sound. The driver slowed down to get a better look, and her son opened the window and leaned his head out to see. He was then seized by intense headaches and a fit of distress, which badly frightened his mother.

The investigation pinpointed the position of the vehicle and the direction of the sighting, north-northeast. Since the exact time within that window was unknown, aircraft movements between 6 and 7 pm around Nantes and La Roche-sur-Yon were reconstructed with the help of the DGAC in Nantes. Seven aircraft were flying low enough to be clearly distinguishable from the ground. The GEIPAN established beyond any doubt that the witnesses had seen a flight on approach to La Roche-sur-Yon airport at 6:27 pm local time. The medical examination found nothing, so the discomfort was attributed to the stress of an unexplained sighting. The child's awkward position with their head out of a moving car may have triggered the headache, with fear and the mother's worry about her younger son, alone at home, doing the rest. The case was classified A.