Sighting in Lormes, October 30, 1978

Two campers were half asleep in their tent at around 2:30 in the night when they heard a whistling sound. From inside the tent, they then saw a red glow lasting 15 to 20 seconds, and felt as though the ground was warming up. About an hour later, a second whistle was heard. Unused to the sounds of the countryside at night, they did not look outside.

At daybreak, they found a burnt patch on the ground a little further away and thought a craft might have been parked there. The gendarmerie investigated but found no other witness to the noises or the lights. However, one witness stated that, a year earlier, they had burned wood at that spot, cleared from the hedge and the embankment alongside the meadow; two other similar burn sites lie further along the hedge.

Around midnight, the campers had tried to light a fire with damp twigs and toilet paper, which tends to smoulder rather than blaze. GEIPAN considered it probable that a gust of wind suddenly set this paper and the grass alight, producing the 15-to-20-second glow and the sensation of heat. This fire was located between the tent and the spot where the craft was supposed to have been parked. The case was classified B, probably identified.