Sighting in Perpignan, January 15, 1981

Shortly before 6 a.m., just before starting work, the witness noticed three points of light crossing a clear sky from south to north. They were perfectly aligned and evenly spaced. Intrigued, the witness watched them for about three minutes, until they passed out of view.

The GEIPAN received this single account as a questionnaire in March 2012, 35 years after the event. The case shows little strangeness: the time, duration and trajectory are all consistent with satellites. What struck the witness was the group effect. Two explanations were possible: a swarm of closely spaced, coordinated satellites, or unrelated satellites moving on parallel orbital planes. The second was judged more likely, since swarms did not exist in 1981, except perhaps in confidential US programs. In principle it implies a larger angular gap between the objects, but the age of the testimony made this hard to check. The GEIPAN therefore classified the case as B: probably satellites.