Sighting in Rentree Atmospherique — National, November 11, 1980

At around 6:30 pm, about a hundred people spread across south-eastern France and Corsica saw a powerful luminous phenomenon cross the sky. Many statements were taken by the gendarmerie. Hundreds more witnesses in Italy and in Catalonia also reported the very spectacular event, and the press covered it. A new witness account received by GEIPAN led to the case being re-examined so it could be published.

Most witnesses described a very bright phenomenon that crossed the sky in less than a minute, heading south or south-west. Their descriptions varied widely: colour (green, red, yellow, violet, white, pinkish, bluish), shape (ball, cigar, saucer, triangle, even a parallelepiped), estimated distance (from 30 m to 2 km), direction of travel (mostly north to south or east to west, the reverse for a few) and duration (mostly under a minute, over two minutes in a few cases).

According to GEIPAN, such variability is common in mass sightings, especially as the witnesses were far apart and so did not share the same viewing angle or observation time. The simultaneity of the reports and some shared features, such as a fragmentation into three parts, leave little doubt that there was a single origin. The large number of witnesses at the same moment, far apart geographically, shows the phenomenon was powerful and at high altitude, so an atmospheric re-entry is certain. Its south-westward path and its duration of under a minute, which implies an initial speed well above 10 km/s, favour a natural meteoroid over satellite debris. Astronomers in Nice and Genoa confirmed this. The case was classified A: a fireball caused by a natural meteoroid.