Sighting in Wolfgantzen, August 12, 2022

Between 6:00 and 6:10 pm, the witness was on a private terrace when an object in the sky caught their attention. They could not identify it with the naked eye or with binoculars. They first thought of an aircraft, but the object had no wings and no tail fin. It was a very bright, dazzling white, which led the witness to wonder whether it might be an airship. Two other people present also watched it. The witness took a photo with a mobile phone; the photo had no metadata. About two to three minutes later, the witness noticed a higher airliner leaving a condensation trail, flying on a path almost perpendicular to that of the object. Only one account was collected.

The GEIPAN investigation concluded that the object was an airliner, a Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR (flight DLH3AJ) operated by Lufthansa. In the photo, the very luminous cylinder matches a white fuselage seen in broad daylight against a blue sky. The second aircraft the witness mentioned made it possible to trace both planes. The moderate viewing angle, the distance, the strong reflectivity of the white fuselage and atmospheric effects explain why the aircraft went unrecognised. Its tail fin was azure blue and could go unnoticed against the blue sky. The straight path at constant speed supports this explanation. The two aircraft were flying about 600 metres apart in altitude, so it is plausible that only one produced a contrail, although this could not be confirmed for lack of precise data (the nearest radiosonde was about 200 km away and an hour earlier). The case was classified A.