Sighting in Paimpont, May 31, 2022

Shortly before midnight, the witness was at home when they heard a deafening noise gradually getting closer to the house. They first thought of a truck, then of an aircraft, but the sound, like that of jet engines, kept growing louder. Intrigued, the witness went to the window and saw an object with three steady white points of light pass low over the house, heading south-east. The spacing between the lights was comparable to that of a large cargo aircraft.

What struck the witness was the arrangement of the three lights: an inverted triangle relative to the direction of travel, with the central light behind the two side ones. The three points moved in a straight line, as if they were part of a single object. Even after losing sight of it, the witness kept hearing the dull noise for at least ten seconds or so. There was only one witness, but a video existed, so the case was considered to have good consistency.

The investigation established that the witness had seen an A400M, a military aircraft, flying at low altitude. The CNOA (the Air and Space Force's National Air Operations Centre) confirmed that the aircraft passed at the time, place and along the trajectory the witness described. The unusually loud noise is explained by the aircraft's four propellers and its low altitude, and the layout of the lights matches its landing lights. The case was classified A.