VAUX-LE-PENIL (77) 18.10.2014

On 18 October 2014 at about 22:25, T1 and his wife, T2, were surprised by an elongated orange shape passing silently overhead along a straight path in less than 4 seconds. It blocked the stars they had been watching. Only T1 completed a questionnaire. The profile T1 drew exactly matched an orange paraglider canopy, making that GEIPAN's initial hypothesis. An electric paramotor, described in the source as the only type allowing immediate recovery from trouble when flying with the motor off, could explain the launch, flights over more than 1 km and the silent passage. The motor could be restarted on final approach during landing. However, experienced paragliders considered a moonless night landing without any lighting or renewed power on final approach, in a field potentially occupied by horses almost all the time, effectively suicidal. Horses are often terrified by flying canopies. Although this scenario would be extremely dangerous, no strong argument formally rules it out, and many features support it. GEIPAN cannot be certain because it is surprising that neither the witnesses nor the horses saw or heard a paraglider landing perhaps less than 100–200 m away. GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable observation of a paraglider landing, possibly motorized.