Sighting in Saint-Germain-lès-Buxy, May 8, 1980

At about 9:15 p.m. on a May evening, a witness was drawn out into their yard by the barking of their dog. In the sky they saw a luminous, orange-red shape, which they described as a large spinning top, or as an object resembling two hollow plates placed one on top of the other, rim to rim. The witness immediately called a neighbour, who also saw a ball of red and orange light, like fire, moving across the sky. The object travelled fast and low along a straight path passing over Buxy, La Ferté and Sennecey-le-Grand.

Both witnesses added that dogs in the area had been barking abnormally that evening and that the television had briefly gone fuzzy. The gendarmerie found no other witness to the object itself, but other residents of the area confirmed that their television reception had been disrupted and reported problems with their livestock.

After a re-examination, GEIPAN classified the case as B: it was probably a misidentification of a short aircraft condensation trail lit at altitude by the setting sun. The rounded shape, orange colour, strong brightness and uninterrupted movement match examples photographed under the same conditions. The sun was 3° below the horizon, so it could still light up an airliner at high altitude. An airliner in that direction is plausible but could not be checked forty years later. A nearby thunderstorm, which the witnesses did not describe, could account for the frightened dogs and the television failures. The drop in milk production reported by a neighbour could have many causes. Witnesses commonly link other events to an initial strange sighting, events they might not have noticed otherwise. The case's consistency is rated medium: there were two witnesses, but the duration of the observation and the angular size are imprecise.