SAINT-GATIEN-DES-BOIS (14) 27.11.2011

Unexplained cases may offer opportunities for scientific knowledge, but their unexplained status must continue to withstand scrutiny over time. Some cases are therefore re-examined. New technical tools (software) and investigative experience accumulated over the years sometimes lead to new observations or a change in classification. The source summary describes the skytracer as a laser projector. This case, formerly classified D, has been re-examined (see investigation report). On 27 November 2011 at 18:50, a female motorist and her children were intrigued by a stationary luminous phenomenon above the church in Saint-Gatien-des-Bois, Calvados, in the Basse-Normandie region. A fifth witness also provided an account later. The first investigation rejected the hypothesis of skytracer searchlight spots on low clouds because the weather data showed no clouds in the observation area. A new, more detailed meteorological study, appended to the investigation report, finds that banks of low stratocumulus were very probably present. GEIPAN now retains this hypothesis, supported by the following: - The UAPs were circular. - Their number varied in the accounts because the witnesses no longer remembered it, but remained compatible with the hypothesis. - The white colour is available in skytracers. - The analysis lists the presence of stratocumulus banks at the observation site as established. - The skytracer’s beam, concentrated into a small diameter stated as 8°, produces strong brightness, made more conspicuous by the witnesses’ eyes having adapted to the dark. - Exceptional horizontal visibility indicates very clear air without suspended fine particles, which would keep the skytracer beams themselves from being visible. - No noise was heard. - The nearby Saint-Gatien golf course to the north is known to hold outdoor festivities that could use skytracers. A supplier working for the course at the time offered displays using a model whose characteristics all match the UAPs. Its actual use at the time could not be formally established, although operating tests may have been carried out for future events. - The UAP’s appearance is compatible with that model at the golf course projecting onto clouds at about 1,000 m altitude. This requires the observations of T1–T4 and T5 to correspond to different beam directions and therefore different times. GEIPAN finds this entirely plausible given the independent, brief observations and the skytracer’s agility. Each group would see just one aiming direction. The eastward or southeastward projection seen by T5 could have escaped T1–T4’s attention or been hidden by buildings to their right. The southward projection seen by T1–T4 could have escaped T5’s initial attention or occurred after he ended his observation: he immediately looked away and ran off. - A Sunday evening is suitable for festive use, although November is much less so, with an outdoor sheltered temperature of about 9°. The equipment may instead have been tested for a later event, perhaps Christmas. GEIPAN considers the evidential substance good simply because several witnesses, including at least one independent witness, T5, broadly described the same thing. However, it regrets the lack of angular data explicitly supplied by them. That information was inferred solely from the first investigator’s photographic reconstruction, apparently based on witness indications that were not recorded. The close match between the hypothesis, the UAP’s appearance and cloud cover, its plausibility given the practices and equipment documented at that place and time, and the absence of any definite contradictory element allow GEIPAN to retain it as probable. GEIPAN concludes B: probable observation of illuminated spots in the sky from a skytracer.