Sighting in Saint-Pierre, February 25, 2025

A witness and their daughter were on the terrace of a building at around 7:40 p.m. when they noticed, in the northwest, a small cluster of five or six white lights packed into a limited area of a perfectly clear night sky. The lights were as bright as the brightest stars. They flickered with no apparent pattern and moved silently at a moderate but clearly noticeable speed: first to the right, then downward, and finally to the left. Binoculars added little: the points looked only slightly larger, with no visible structure between them, which suggested a distant source.

Just as the witness was about to film, nearly all the lights went out at once. One stayed on and kept flashing. As soon as the video started, it stopped moving, flashed four times at regular intervals, and then disappeared. The witness supplied precise location and orientation data so that known objects in the area could be checked. The case was considered consistent: two witnesses, although only one completed a GEIPAN questionnaire, clear details and a video. At Pierrefonds airport, the weather was good, with a completely clear sky and a light northwest wind of about 14 km/h at 7 p.m., dropping and turning northerly afterward.

The 2nd RPIMA confirmed it had carried out three night drops from Pilatus aircraft between 7 and 8 p.m., with ten parachutists in total (4, 3 and 3). The jumpers switch on strobe lights in the aircraft and turn them off on the ground. The Pilatus has no ADS-B transponder, so it does not show up on tracking tools. The jumps took place above Saint-Pierre, in the direction the witness was looking, toward the regiment's stadium, which lies northwest of the witness near the airport. This accounts for the final leftward movement. The lights vanishing can be explained by loss of visibility behind features of the landscape or by the parachutists changing orientation. Given this match, GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of parachutists.