Sighting in Rentree Atmospherique — National, March 17, 1997

After regional newspapers published several reports of an unidentified aerospace phenomenon the following day, a gendarmerie investigation was requested. Witnesses spread across several departments in southern France described the same thing in the early morning: a green, luminous phenomenon that crossed the sky very quickly. Several flight crews and a pilot who was on a training flight in a Mirage 2000 over the Mediterranean also saw it. All gave a descending trajectory heading toward the Pyrenees. Various gendarmerie units took the witnesses' statements.

According to GEIPAN, these descriptions match the probable sighting of a meteoroid entering the atmosphere that same morning. The case is therefore classed B, probably identified. GEIPAN adds that other sightings were reported to the gendarmerie that evening, but they are separate cases and are handled on their own.