Sighting in Offranville, April 23, 2023

One evening, a resident was in their garden hoping to see an aurora borealis. The sky was clear and they were taking photographs. Clouds then began to form, and the witness noticed an unidentified aerial phenomenon in the sky, which they initially paid no attention to.

At the same moment, the witness's son, who was at home, also spotted the phenomenon. He photographed it and sent the pictures to his father by mobile phone. Surprised, the original witness then started taking photos too. Four people were involved in all, but only one account was submitted to GEIPAN, illustrated with numerous photographs.

GEIPAN rated the case as having very low strangeness and very good consistency. It turned out to be a misidentification of the shadow of the church steeple, cast onto low clouds by a floodlight at the foot of the building. The phenomenon's appearance matched the twisted steeple perfectly, recognizable by the small bells on one side, which corresponded to the dark structures visible in one of the photographs. Its lack of movement, its high angular height, and the alignment of the floodlight, the steeple and the witness all supported this explanation. The witness later confirmed the identification, noting that they had seen the phenomenon again several times since. The case was classified A.