Sighting in Plouhinec, December 12, 2020

The witness noticed a trail in the sky toward the south-southwest that struck them as odd. They grabbed their camera and took a few photos of what seemed to be an object racing toward the ocean. They wondered whether it might be human-made space debris, a small meteorite entering the atmosphere, or something connected to SpaceShipTwo, a spaceplane prototype. They gave a viewing direction of 225° and an elevation of 20°.

The camera's clock had been left on summer time and was also 15 minutes fast, as shown by a photo of the speaking clock. The investigation therefore placed the sighting at 15:12 UT, or 16:12 local winter time, rather than 17:27. The direction of about 220° worked out from the photos matched the witness's estimate. At that moment the Sun was at an azimuth of 222° and 8° above the horizon. It does not appear in the photos, probably because it was hidden by the thick cloud layer (6/8 oktas).

The shape and color in the photos pointed to a contrail. Flightradar24 identified a candidate, an Airbus A321 flying from London to Lisbon at 35,000 feet, about 150 km away to the south-southwest. Its track, however, passed north of the witness, whereas the object appeared to move toward the right side of the images. At that altitude, though, a 216 km/h wind blowing from 315° could have pushed the trail several kilometers south. The elongated shape, and even a twin-engine look when zoomed in, fit an aircraft contrail, and the Sun, close to the line of sight, made it very bright. GEIPAN classified the case as A: a misidentified contrail.