Sighting in Saint-Paul-aux-Bois, March 2, 1980

Four witnesses saw a luminous object between 21:45 and 22:00. Its color and brightness changed, and it was low in the night sky, in the direction of Salency. Three of the witnesses thought the object was moving along a downward path, while the fourth saw it stay in place.

The gendarmes were called at 21:55 and went to the scene right away. They noticed nothing unusual in the west, where the sky was full of stars.

GEIPAN considered the case fairly solid: there were four witnesses, the description was fairly precise, and the witnesses' sincerity and credibility were never doubted. However, the duration of the sighting, the shape, the size and the color all match Venus, a well-known celestial body, and the planet was setting on the horizon in the direction the witnesses indicated. According to the investigation, the witnesses' perception was not at fault; what led them astray was how they interpreted what they saw, influenced by how they felt (tiredness, surprise). The case, previously classed B, was re-examined and classed A: a misidentification of Venus setting.