Sighting in Sommerécourt, July 17, 1983

After seeing several lights in the night sky on 15 and 16 July 1983, the witness set out on 17 July at about 9:30 p.m. to watch the hill with binoculars and see what was going on. Several hours later, relatives found them at home, dazed, with injuries on their body and severely traumatized. They said they had been snatched up by a yellow-orange fireball and then dropped a few kilometres away. Their incoherent account and their injuries led the family to have them admitted to hospital.

The investigation showed that the lights could well have occurred: an EDF high-voltage line (60 kV) runs across the hill, and electric arcs could have formed there. The witness could have suffered an electric shock because of the line and the very stormy weather. The abduction explanation, however, seemed hardly credible. The case is classified B (probably identified).