[A7] DE AVIGNON (84) VERS BOLLENE (84) 11.12.1993

GEIPAN continues to publish all its archives on its public website, www.geipan.fr. These publications include older cases, classified at the time as A, B, C or D, that are now being reexamined solely to improve the relevance of their conclusions. New technical tools (software) and the investigative experience gained over the years sometimes lead this reexamination to new observations or even a change of classification. This sighting, previously classified D and named PRIVAS (07) 1993, is among the cases recently reexamined. On 11 December 1993 around 20:50, a female motorist noticed a very large light rotating in the sky before disappearing. A little farther along, it reappeared, and her 2 passengers also saw it. At a parking area she pointed it out to another motorist. She reported watching it rotate silently for about 20 minutes, with 6–10 other lights below. It appeared and disappeared, moving and spinning in every direction. Only 1 witness reported the observation to the gendarmerie. The description matches features of a ground-based laser display reflected in the atmosphere by moisture droplets or clouds: - Patterns of 1 or more luminous points or segments, in 1 or more colors, with fixed or, more often, changing geometry. - Rotating, sweeping or pivoting patterns, potentially making large, rapid excursions across the sky. - Depending on atmospheric conditions, the upward beams may or may not be visible; they were not visible here. Sometimes only the upward beams are seen, with no projected pattern in the sky. Laser displays, now frequent and readily recognized in GEIPAN accounts, were rarer in 1993. Their source can no longer be investigated at or near this location close to Avignon. However, another sighting that year, coincidentally on the same day but in a completely different place, was traced to such a display. It demonstrated that equipment producing these effects was sold to French nightclubs (see the gendarmerie report for ILE BOUCHARD (37) 11.12.1993). GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable observation of a laser or “Sky Rose,” not certain because the installation could not be identified or weather compatibility checked.