Sighting in Rupt-sur-Moselle, May 25, 2018

One evening around 9 p.m., the witness was watching television at home. Their window looked out toward the fort, about 2 km away as the crow flies. They noticed a bright yellow light, as brilliant as the moon, which seemed to come and go at more or less regular intervals and was accompanied by beams of light. The scene lasted between 5 and 10 minutes, and the witness reported it to the gendarmerie.

The following week, the witness saw the same phenomenon again. This time they took photographs and went to the area. Their own inquiries revealed that soldiers of the 1st Tirailleurs Regiment of Épinal were holding exercises in the area using flares. A photo posted on 13 June 2018 on a social network page dedicated to the regiment confirms this; it was posted 23 days after the first sighting and 16 days after the second. Only one account of the phenomenon was collected.

The GEIPAN's research is consistent with the hypothesis of military exercises using flares. The case is classified A: the witness mistook flares fired during a military exercise for an unknown phenomenon.