Sighting in Valbonnais, January 13, 1976

At around 11 p.m., a witness used binoculars to follow an elongated red object as it moved across the sky. They heard no sound, and the object gradually faded from view. The same witness saw the same thing again two days later, at the same hour.

The gendarmerie then made similar observations of its own on 17 and 18 January, between 10:50 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. The object followed a path running from south-southeast to north-northwest.

According to GEIPAN, these descriptions resemble those of satellite passes. However, the available data were not sufficient to confirm that hypothesis, so the case was classed C. The conclusion was that the sightings were of the slow passage of a red object at high altitude.