PEIGNEY (52) 17.08.2016

At 05:45 on 17 August 2016, a witness on his terrace in Peigney (52) saw an orange glow due west in a field at ground level. With the naked eye and then binoculars, he observed a large stationary orange light with 3 small aligned luminous balls apparently rotating around it. He estimated a distance of 2 km. After 2–3 minutes he went to get his camera; the phenomenon was gone when he returned. Only 1 account was collected. GEIPAN considered a ground-level light on a hill 2 km away in the municipality of Langres (52) not especially strange. It could have been farm machinery or an ordinary vehicle on or near a track, with people carrying lights around it, accounting for the apparent rotation. In his gendarmerie statement the witness also described a similar event at about 03:00 on 4 June 2012, on the same hill a few tens of metres away. Lights moved around a central glow initially described as a flame. He added that a church there could accommodate scouts, providing another possible explanation for the 2016 event. GEIPAN classified the case B: probable ground lights from a vehicle or campfire and people carrying electric torches or flaming torches.