Sighting in Saint-Germain-sur-Ay, September 23, 2013

Between 8:10 and 8:25 pm, a driver on the D650, between Les Mezières and the beach, noticed two bright points in the sky. One of them seemed to follow a straight path, moving away at a steady speed toward the northwest. The witness also clearly recognised an aircraft with its condensation trail crossing their field of view. They stopped in two places and took several photographs of the bright point.

The photos, which were of very good quality, and the account both point clearly to the trail of a distant aircraft flying away from the witness. In the final photos, enlarged by zooming, the bright point looked like a flame. This is the effect of perspective on a contrail strongly lit by the setting sun, which had set at 7:54 pm.

Reconstructions made with Flightradar24 show one, and possibly two, aircraft that could have produced the trails. The investigation notes, however, that the witness's estimate of the viewing direction is not precise enough to confirm that these were the aircraft involved, and that Flightradar24 only shows civil aircraft carrying a certain type of equipment. The GEIPAN classified the case as B: a very probable observation of aircraft condensation trails in the light of the setting sun.