ALLEVES (74) 21.12.2014

The Allèves (74) case title gives 21 December 2014, but the narrative dates the observation to 21 January 2015 at about 18:00. Three people first looked through their living-room window, then from the terrace, at a phenomenon they could not explain. Indoors they saw a moving yellow teardrop shape. Outside it appeared circular and matt black, then quickly disappeared. They used both naked eyes and binoculars. Only 1 questionnaire was received, but a site investigation refined or corrected some information; see the report. The strangeness lay in 2 successive appearances that initially seemed impossible to connect to the same phenomenon. Following the site visit and witness descriptions, GEIPAN considered a short aircraft contrail plausible. The 3 witnesses observed intermittently at nightfall. Sunlight initially illuminated the trail; during the second phase it may no longer have directly reached the part of the sky crossed by the aircraft. A contrail can thus change quickly from a bright patch to a dark one. GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable observation of an aircraft contrail.