Sighting in Peynier, June 14, 2011

At around 10:30 p.m., two witnesses noticed a luminous object moving silently across the sky at a changing speed. The sighting lasted between 5 and 10 minutes. Two days later, the witnesses went back to the spot and found, in the middle of tall grass, a circular area about 1.5 m across where the grass had been flattened.

The investigation separated the account into two independent phenomena. The first was a powerful white light, moving two to three times faster than an aircraft, which took on a red glow as it passed through a cloud; this clearly matches the International Space Station (ISS). The second, which quickly changed course and speed, suggests a helicopter, but GEIPAN could not check this hypothesis and the testimony was not precise enough to support it.

The case, of moderate strangeness, would have been rated A for the first part and C for the second, while the flattened grass was deemed irrelevant to the rating. Because detailed information on the second part of the sighting is lacking, the case is rated C overall.