ETRELLES (35) 01.06.2014

On 1 June 2014 at Étrelles (35), 2 witnesses in a work vehicle briefly saw a dark mass in the night sky with 2 small, faint lights. It suddenly moved at tremendous speed and disappeared. A field investigation supported their accounts, and several explanations were considered, but none fitted well; see the investigation report. GEIPAN described 2 highly reliable witnesses observing in ideal conditions and found the event resistant to the hypotheses examined, particularly a meteor or fireball. Nevertheless, uncertainty about the path on appearance, the very short duration, and the witnesses' lack of independence after immediately discussing what they saw, together with no photograph or video, prevented a D2 classification. GEIPAN classified it D1: unexplained, with strong evidential support from 2 high-quality accounts and moderate strangeness. The presence of a physical object was possible but not certain.