PLOUMILLIAU (22) 14.09.2015

A witness submitted 2 very similar accounts of events on 14 and 23 September 2015, observed from the same place at about 22:30. Both described aircraft, their sounds and trails in a setting GEIPAN interpreted as military air operations. The witness compared them with recent early-September Rafale flights low along the coast near the Roscoff–Saint-Pol-de-Léon boundary, possibly exercises, when aircraft had passed overhead for hours. He was almost certain the 14 September aircraft were military. On 14 September, 2 loud and distinct sounds, resembling a missile or a huge firework without detonation, drew him to the window. One UAP looked unlike the aircraft: a spherical ball that at one point released a curtain of light towards the ground. On 23 September, he saw 4 or 5 luminous balls much brighter than the few faint stars. They moved rapidly in different directions like a dance, alternately appearing and disappearing. Two aircraft, recognised by white trails, flew nearby; their noise suggested there might have been more. After about 1–2 minutes, the balls quickly disappeared and only the aircraft remained visible and audible. The witness's reported and mapped directions, southwest on 14 September and southeast on 23 September, matched a military low-flying zone on the 2015 RTBA map. GEIPAN concluded that he had seen aerial exercises twice. In this context, it considered the unusual lights explicable: exercises may include releases of luminous infrared decoy flares, which can seem strange to someone unaware of their connection to military manoeuvres. The source refers to an article on illuminating munitions and military flares as sources of UFO reports. No other witness reported unusual features of these events to GEIPAN, despite the attention their noise would attract. GEIPAN classified both the 14 and 23 September 2015 cases B: aircraft.