Sighting in Monès, October 2, 2023

At 5:17 a.m., a resident opened the terrace door and saw, together with their spouse, a very bright elongated shape moving toward Lombez. It passed silently and in a straight line, travelling from east-southeast to west-northwest. Only one of the two witnesses completed the witness questionnaire, and no photo or video was provided, so the GEIPAN rated the consistency of the case as medium.

The investigation drew on maps from the Centre National des Opérations Spatiales of the Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace and on FlightRadar24 data. These showed that a Boeing 777-300 operated by Air Austral, flight REU975 from Saint-Denis to Tarbes, flew over the witnesses at that time, heading from east to west, a path very close to the one described. Seen from the side, this aircraft, the largest of the B777 series, looks like an elongated shape. The lack of noise is explained by the plane being in its descent phase, and therefore at reduced speed, and by an east-southeast wind that carried the sound away from the witnesses. The strong brightness was most likely due to the landing lights being switched on a little before the time required by regulations. One witness's drawing, with lights around the edge of the shape, most likely reflects this diffuse glow rather than separate point lights. Finally, the aircraft was very visible, so if it was not what they saw, the witnesses would hardly have failed to mention it.

The case was classified A: very probably an airliner.