Sighting in Saint-Priest, October 14, 1989

Between 5:40 and 7:30 a.m., a couple noticed a luminous phenomenon in the sky that intrigued them. The witness did not recognise it as a star, an aircraft or a weather balloon. The object looked oval and very bright, and its apparent size was that of a dessert plate. At first it stayed motionless, then seemed to rotate on itself. A second, smaller object accompanied by a glow then broke away from the first, went straight down, and rose back toward it. The whole thing finally disappeared toward the south.

According to the gendarmerie investigation and a press article attached to the report, two other people saw the same phenomenon, which lasted exceptionally long, but they did not make a statement to the gendarmerie.

The GEIPAN re-examined the file, originally classified D, thirty years after the events. The case rests on a single witness, with imprecise and sometimes contradictory data, and no field investigation was carried out. Most elements point to an astronomical misidentification, in particular of Jupiter. However, some information is missing, such as the elevation, and other details conflict, such as the direction (east or west) and whether the sky was clear. The witness did not mention the full Moon or Sirius, although the sky was very probably clear, so an obstacle may have hidden them. The small object with a glow is the element hardest to explain astronomically. Several hypotheses remain possible, none of which can be confirmed or ruled out: gaps in an obstacle masking the Moon, visual fatigue on the witness's part, or an aircraft-related phenomenon seen in the same spot as Jupiter after a break in the observation. The GEIPAN therefore classified the case C, for lack of reliable data.