Sighting in Sommesous, December 31, 1999

Between 7:30 and 8:00 pm on 31 December 1999, a driver on the N4 was blinded by a whitish glow resembling a flash. They heard no noise. All the warning lights on the dashboard came on and the engine cut out abruptly, leaving the car coasting. It restarted by itself shortly afterwards. A mechanic, consulted on the witness's own initiative, checked the battery terminals and found nothing abnormal.

A similar case was reported about ten days later, a few kilometres away: a driver described a very intense light and the engine and car radio stopping. The two accounts therefore looked strongly alike. The gendarmerie carried out no investigation beyond taking the witness's statement, and the SEPRA requested nothing. The statement was not spontaneous: the witness had heard the account of the other case before being questioned, which may have influenced some aspects of their testimony. The physical hypotheses (a meteor, a camera flash, or a firework burst just before the year 2000) could not be weighed for lack of evidence. GEIPAN classified the case C: insufficient reliable information.