CONCHES-EN-OUCHE (27) 23.02.2016

On the night of 23-24 February 2016 at around midnight several people in the car were intrigued by the passage at very low altitude of an imposing object with lights of different fixed or flashing colors. The witnesses described a circular or triangular object that slowly moves in the sky at the height of the treetops. Four witnesses gave statements in the gendarmerie. It appears that T1 T2 and T3 witnesses from the same vehicle and the isolated witness observed a C130 aircraft, which was clearly identified (air traffic) and took off from Air Base 105 at Évreux in a south-west direction and then passed south of Conches-en-Ouche at low altitude with a heading of approximately 210° (see the attached investigation report). GEIPAN considers this a clear illustration of how an aircraft combined with other factors can cause fear, emotional reactions and misidentification: - The aircraft was unusual—a large military aircraft—which frightened the Conches-en-Ouche witness. The aircraft was too large and was flying too slowly for the witness. Indeed, we already know that Airbus A380 and A320 aircraft taking off or landing can give very different impressions of speed and altitude even under identical conditions. - For the witnesses traveling on the RD830, an illusion of hovering arose from a “pivot effect”: both the witness and phenomenon were moving, while the line joining them pivoted around a fixed point or area that was then mistaken for the phenomenon’s stationary position. A fairly continuous foreground of trees confused the reference points and favored this impression. - The lighting was unusual, here the full moon which is not seen directly but which by reflection on the plane or diffusion in the tops of trees creates disc, cone and halo effects which can actually contribute to strangeness. The more comprehensive analysis is contained in the attached document, including: - the Radar trajectory of the C130 aircraft. - mapping of observations with the aircraft's trajectory, the position of the witnesses, their direction of observation. The GEIPAN classifies the case as "A": misidentification of an airplane. More generally, the case illustrates the richness and fragility of human testimony in the face of an unrecognized phenomenon, in conditions of observation far from being ideal, and more so, in a situation of emotion caused by strangeness. Witnesses in the same car estimate very different distances (300 m to 10 km), they see the aircraft in a form mainly circular or round but with strong variants while the witness of Conches-en-Ouche sees a triangle. Red lights can be fixed or flashing according to witnesses. The driver of the car is sure to have stopped the vehicle while the passengers insist that he did not. Also, one can question a possible effect of influence between witnesses or “priming an impression of strangeness” when a witness detects the phenomenon and shows it to others by calling it “UFO”.