Sighting in Senneville-sur-Fécamp, December 30, 2010

At around 6:30 pm, a witness watched a number of white, egg-shaped rings and points of light moving about in a sky with little cloud. They were described as a multitude of white patches of light moving in periodic patterns. The observation lasted 45 minutes. The witness described a black sky, with few stars and not much cloud.

The investigation compared this description with a light show from a multi-beam projector of the Skyrose type. These projectors are often a source of confusion because of the dance of light they cast on clouds, and their beams are not necessarily visible when the air is very clear, for example after rain. The wind throughout the day suggested good transparency, but weather records reported fog and drizzle at Le Havre, Dieppe and Rouen, and the incomplete satellite images could not show the cloud cover at the time of the sighting. With fog, the beams should have been visible and would have revealed the direction of the projector, which fits poorly with this explanation. There no longer seems to be a nightclub in the town, but the announcement of an exceptional New Year's Eve party may have led an organiser to set one up.

GEIPAN rated the case as having low strangeness and medium consistency. The projector hypothesis, fully compatible with the report and plausible on the eve of New Year's Eve, could not be confirmed. Because there were no independent witnesses or cross-checks, the case was classified C, insufficient data.