VALBONNE (06) 20.08.2005

On 20 August 2005, between 21:20 and 21:45, a holidaymaker accompanied by 4 other people watched and filmed several very bright, round, white and yellow flashing lights moving slowly in the southern sky. The filming lasted 20 minutes. The attached video shows several white lights appearing successively over that period, sometimes with several visible at once. No sound was heard. The witness stopped watching to eat while the UAPs remained visible. Only 1 account and a video were collected. All the lights appeared almost head-on, seemed stationary for a fairly long time, then began turning to the witness's left. They disappeared behind trees and reappeared lower down and at a different angle, making flashing lights visible. The witness did not realize that the head-on lights gradually disappearing behind the trees—landing lights—were the same lights that subsequently reappeared to the left. Their paths match the VOR A approach procedure used by aircraft landing at Nice airport. The attached reconstruction shows the witness's position in Valbonne, viewing direction and aircraft approach routes. Traffic records from 2005 could not be accessed to verify whether 2 or 3 aircraft were approaching simultaneously. However, a check of traffic current at the time of the investigation, at the same hour and in summer, confirmed that this can occur. The observers' status as holidaymakers unfamiliar with the area may explain the misidentification. GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable aircraft misidentification.