Sighting in Les Pennes-Mirabeau, August 2, 2016

One evening, the witness was crossing outside their house to reach the studio where they slept. Before going in, they looked up at the clear sky to watch the stars. They then noticed shadows that seemed to be moving: five dark, triangular objects travelling in a line and in a V formation, like birds. At each tip shone a very faint red point of light, dimmer than a star, which never went out. The group passed silently and fairly fast for about 5 seconds, then disappeared from view. The witness first thought of birds, but the lights made them rule that out. They then considered aircraft, but the lack of any noise, in a rural spot, struck them as odd.

A field investigation with a cognitive interview took place at the witness's home in June 2017. It established that the objects moved from north toward north-east, at about 25° elevation, between 11:00 and 11:20 pm, for 5 to 9 seconds. The investigator looked at Thai lanterns, aircraft in formation, migrating birds and a laser, without reaching a conclusion. A drone was proposed, but this is undermined by the absence of noise (possibly masked by cicadas), the ban on night flights and on flying over inhabited areas, and the risk of a crash. Analyses carried out in 2019 brought up the possibility of birds, but the red lights remain a distinguishing element.

The case rests on a single witness and no photograph, and there is too little data to identify the shapes and lights. Consistency and strangeness are both rated medium. GEIPAN classed it C: insufficient data.