[D820] de ROQUES (31) vers TOULOUSE (31) 21.02.2016

On 21 February 2016 around noon, a motorist drove in heavy traffic on Toulouse’s ring road, first with two lanes and then three. Looking toward Toulouse just above a large store’s roof, he saw a saucer-shaped object that appeared brown. He thought of an advertising balloon but could see no branding. It seemed stationary for a very long time before disappearing at high speed. The observation began at 11:55. Only one account was collected. Easterly wind suggested to GEIPAN an aircraft departing Blagnac into wind from the runway designated “014 right” in the source, then looping southward. For a comparable period with identical wind, investigators found flight AF6135, Toulouse–Orly. The attached “trace AF6135 du 05.07.2017.pdf” shows a flight path compatible with three key positions: - A: apparently stationary, viewed head-on as it approached. Altitude 1,400 m and distance 5,500 m give elevation 14°. - B: crossing the A64, at altitude 1,500 m and distance 2,300 m, giving elevation 30°. - C: heading northwest, at altitude 2,200 m and distance 8,000 m, with elevation falling to 15°. During the southern loop, head-on approach looks stationary, followed by apparent acceleration as the path becomes transverse to the witness. Position times support this: less than 1 minute from A to B and about 1.5 minutes from B to C. GEIPAN considers the observation probably an aircraft making such a loop under conditions comparable to AF6135, creating an illusion of hovering, then rapidly gaining speed and disappearing into the distance. The main anomaly was the absence of visible wings. An aircraft viewed head-on, such as a Beluga, can look saucer-like with thin edges corresponding to its wings. In side view the wings are not always visible; the intermittent observation could explain their absence. Despite daylight and many vehicles with potential observers, only this witness came forward, which GEIPAN considers to weaken the reported strangeness. The account nevertheless has good evidential substance: he supplied a later photograph of the surroundings and gave a gendarmerie statement. GEIPAN finds the description fully consistent with a Blagnac departure southeastward, then a southern loop to a northward heading, described as a standard easterly-wind route avoiding the urban area. It classifies B: probable misidentification of an aircraft taking off.