Sighting in Monthermé, October 11, 1980

The day after an observation made from their home, a teenage girl went to the gendarmerie. Around 23:40, lying in bed, she had seen through the window a ball sitting on the ground 200 meters away, shaped like a flying saucer or a big cigar, with a yellow rim lighter than its orange center. After 2 minutes the phenomenon rose, projecting blue lights, with an engine noise, and left toward a nearby place. Fifteen to twenty minutes later it passed back over the house, lighting up the garden. Her 15-year-old sister, who came into the bedroom, described a large ball with a strong yellow light that stayed a few minutes in the meadow behind the house before leaving with a car-like noise.

The parents, alerted, watched for 10 to 15 minutes a rotating blue light beam with a long range, 200-300 meters away. One of them heard a brief starting noise; the other, somewhat hard of hearing, did not. They did not see the ball, which was hidden by trees. The gendarmerie found no traces and no related observation in the neighborhood.

GEIPAN's re-examination notes strong strangeness in the two sisters' account, but also many inconsistencies with the parents' statements: time spent on the ground, end of the observation, timing of the noise, no mention of what the children said. Consistency is low. Lights on the ground probably did occur for an unknown reason; the flying light is considered highly suspect. The case is classified C, for lack of information.