PARIS (75) 13.01.2015

The case title dates this Paris sighting to 13 January 2015, whereas the French narrative says 13 May 2015. According to that narrative, at 08:40 a motorist on the Paris ring road noticed a bright white oblong object in the sky and took 3 photographs through the windscreen. It seemed stationary and then moved only slightly. He lost sight of it when leaving the ring road. Only 1 account was collected. GEIPAN assesses the unusualness as low, arising mainly from the apparent lack of movement. The account has a fairly substantial evidential basis, with enough usable information and photographs suitable for analysis; see the investigation report. The appearance and slow or apparently stationary movement are typical of airliners and their condensation trails at altitude when already illuminated by the rising or setting Sun before it is visible from the ground. The photographs were taken at 08:42:37, 08:42:48 and 08:42:54, which the source describes as the exact time of sunrise. GEIPAN explains that local weather at an aircraft's altitude determines whether a contrail forms. Distance and perspective can prevent an observer from recognizing it as a trail, so it is perceived as a single object while the aircraft itself may be invisible. Different parts of a trail along the same flight path can dissipate at different rates. This explains an observation lasting more than 10 minutes: the witness was seeing a persistent section of contrail for that length of time, rather than the aircraft itself. The case is classified as A: observation of an aircraft and its condensation trail.