Sighting in Marck, December 9, 2002

An instructor pilot was flying with two students and had just taken off from Calais-Dunkerque aerodrome, at around 10:45 a.m., when all three saw a circular luminous phenomenon for less than ten seconds. It seemed to head toward them, then changed direction and vanished. Its color was first described as white-yellow, then metallic gray. The instructor pilot was surprised that the object made no maneuver to move away.

The Lille-Lesquin control tower, contacted immediately, saw no aircraft trace on its radar screens. At around 5 p.m., the instructor pilot called the gendarmerie to ask whether anyone else had seen the phenomenon. Apart from the three people in the aircraft, no other testimony was collected.

The investigation concluded that the witnesses most likely saw the sun reflecting off an airliner passing about twenty kilometers away, probably on the Brussels-London route. The described appearance fits this explanation, which the pilot had considered himself before rejecting it because the sun's position seemed unsuitable. However, the witnesses' position relative to the sun allows a specular reflection off the fuselage. Such a reflection depends on geometry, which explains the short duration. The apparent retreat into the distance is a classic illusion: when the light's intensity drops, it is read as the object moving away. Two uncertainties remain: this type of reflection has not been modeled quantitatively, and the airliner's presence is unproven because the records are no longer available 17 years later. The hypothesis remains very plausible, and the case is well documented (several witnesses, sketches, position indications). GEIPAN classified it B.