Sighting in Saint-Florent, June 30, 1979

At about 12:30 a.m., four people were driving along a departmental road when, near a track leading to a hamlet, they saw a red phenomenon in the distance that seemed to descend from the sky to road level. Its shape differed from one witness to another: one described a banana with its tips pointing skyward, others a drop. With the car stopped, they watched it. They heard no noise and noticed no flashing light signal. It seemed to move slowly. Frightened, they turned back to alert the gendarmerie. One of them saw it disappear behind the trees lining the road.

The gendarmes received them at 12:55 a.m. and went straight to the spot without them. Their first check, at 1:20 a.m., found no traces. The next day, accompanied by the witnesses, they found a fire pit 1.60 m across with ashes still warm, and no other marks on the ground or in the vegetation. No other witness came forward. The investigation established that farmers had lit a brush fire there two days earlier, and the gendarmes had suggested the witnesses saw a whirl of cinders.

The GEIPAN's re-examination set this explanation aside: it fitted the description poorly, despite the match in location. The Moon was setting, which accounts for the red colour, and its azimuth (281°) matched the axis of the road. Its crescent resting on the horizon fitted the appearance described. The witnesses did not mention the Moon, but it was visible in the direction they indicated. The GEIPAN concluded it was a misidentification of the setting Moon, caused by how the witnesses interpreted what they saw while tired, driving and frightened, not by a failure of perception. The case was classified A.