MURET (31) 24.06.2014

On 24 June 2014 at 08:40 in Muret (31), a woman driving her son to school noticed 2 gray, boat-shaped objects stationary side by side in the sky. She could not explain them to her son. Both eventually moved away slowly. On her return journey at 09:08, she saw a third object at the same location, moving in the same direction as the others, northeast. GEIPAN considers the described boat-shaped objects very probably kites. The attached reconstruction marks the witness's 4 reconstructed observation positions on a satellite image. Views from these different angles locate the approximate UAP area and show a side-on appearance in observation 1, across the measured wind, and a front or rear view in observation 3, along the wind. These appearances fit kites seen from the side and front relative to the wind. The witness rejected this explanation when contacted by telephone 2 years later. Nevertheless, GEIPAN retains it as the most probable because of the reported features and evidence of kite flying in a recreation area just upwind, marked in the reconstruction. It suggests that users may exceptionally have chosen to fly farther downwind in the UAP field, or immediately upwind of that field, perhaps because the recreation area was inaccessible that day. In this scenario, the witness would have seen kites on one side of the road without noticing their operators on the other. GEIPAN classifies the case as B: probable observation of kites.