Sighting in Mailly-le-Camp, October 27, 1954

At about 5:45 p.m., two people, one of them a colonel, saw a very bright segment from the military camp, standing out against a clear, blue-green sky. It was slightly north of the setting sun, two to three minutes after sunset. Its angular height ranged from about 45° down to 20°. The object looked like shiny metal and was tilted about 30° from the vertical. It stayed motionless for ten to fifteen seconds, then suddenly shrank to a point in the same spot for three seconds before vanishing. The whole sighting lasted twenty-five to thirty seconds. Its apparent size was between a third and a half of the Moon's diameter, or 10 to 15 arcminutes.

Only the colonel's account was kept, in an observation report, and some passages of the handwritten document are illegible. The witness thought they had probably seen an aircraft turning, lit from below by the setting sun. GEIPAN notes that this kind of sight is common today because of heavy air traffic and can be seen every evening under clear skies shortly after sunset. The case was classified B: probably an aircraft lit by the setting sun.