Sighting in Saint-Branchs, May 16, 1993

On the night of 15 to 16 May 1993, between midnight and 1 a.m., three people were traveling in a vehicle when they noticed, several times during the journey, a phenomenon that intrigued them. Only one of the occupants gave an account. The witness described a bluish shape with no substance, most often ahead of the vehicle at headlight height, at a distance impossible to estimate. It seemed to move constantly back and forth from right to left, always at the same height. The occupants did not stop, so the observation was intermittent and spread over about 4 km. The witness noted that the sky was clear at the observation site and mentioned lightning.

The investigation concluded that this was very probably a discotheque laser, the night being a Saturday-to-Sunday one. The appearance described (an elongated shape lit from below by a bluish light, back-and-forth movement, an insubstantial and thin object) matches other observations now well known to GEIPAN. Clouds capable of reflecting a laser were present toward the northern horizon, where a weather disturbance centered on Great Britain was producing lightning. Another case in the same area had shown that discotheque equipment caused similar sightings, and other cases have established that the source can be several tens of kilometers away, with an appearance that varies with atmospheric conditions. The equipment could not be found 25 years later, but the match in appearance led to the hypothesis being retained. The case, first classified D, was reclassified A after re-examination.