Sighting in Pranles, July 21, 1979

On a July evening in 1979, a first group of two witnesses, the main witness and their spouse, watched a stationary light on top of a ridgeline from 10:45 pm to 11:28 pm, in the direction of the "Serre de Pieroulet". The main witness likened it to a lighthouse: a powerful yellow-orange source sent out a blue beam that turned steadily through 360° and swept the ground. No particular sound was heard during the 45-minute observation. Just as the main witness was getting ready to take a photograph, the light went out abruptly.

The next day, the couple learned that their closest neighbours, a second witness and their spouse, had noticed a light in the same direction at around 11 pm while closing their shutters. They had watched it for about ten minutes before going to bed. The main witness informed the gendarmerie the following day. Only the two main witnesses gave statements.

GEIPAN re-examined the file. The behaviour described matches no known natural or artificial phenomenon. The only possibility, a hovering helicopter with a searchlight, would not explain the blue beam, which differed in colour from its source, or its constant rotation with no apparent purpose. The main witness, a scientist whose field concerns light and colour, gave a precise and reliable description. The second statement, though sparse, confirms the fixed yellow-orange glow and the blue light on the ground, and places the phenomenon in the same direction at the same time. The main witness has died and the other three could not be found, so no field investigation could be carried out. The case, on the borderline between unexplained and unusable, was classified D: a strange phenomenon of medium or high consistency.