Sighting in Villebon-sur-Yvette, September 6, 1982

One evening around 10:30 pm, a couple standing on their third-floor balcony noticed a large orange light in the direction of the Orly runways. Both witnesses compared it to a flying saucer or an airship. It faded away gradually over about two minutes, with no sound at all. An aircraft passed between the phenomenon and the witnesses during the sighting. One of them described it as heading off to the East. The gendarmerie questioned several air surveillance services and fire stations in the area but learned nothing more.

The case, first classified D, was re-examined by GEIPAN. It was judged to be of average strangeness and consistency: two witnesses who were not independent of each other, and no photograph. The description (oval, large, orange, bright, which the witnesses took to be a possible fire) matches the Moon shortly after moonrise. The witnesses had an excellent view to the East and described a cloudless sky, yet said they had not seen the Moon, although it was in the direction they indicated, fairly low, which explains its orange color. The aircraft's passage places the phenomenon slightly to the right of the runways, exactly where the Moon was. Weather data show clouds on the eastern horizon, which the witnesses did not mention: as they gradually covered the Moon, they explain why the phenomenon seemed to shrink and then vanish, and why one witness took the shrinking for a departure toward the East. The case is classified A: observation of the Moon.