THUN-SAINT-AMAND (59) 03.12.2016

On 3 December 2016 at 16:45, 2 witnesses at home in Thun-Saint-Amand saw many luminous rectangles. Through binoculars they described very tapered gray-green saucer forms with paler domes. They later saw 3 dark-gray ovoid phenomena with small wings, surrounded by flickering orange light, traveling southwest to northeast, with a dull sound. One witness also reported a grayish sphere. They stopped watching around 17:10 and took 3 photographs with a tablet. GEIPAN received all accounts in 2017. The case is a very probable misidentification of different aircraft at sunset (see investigation report). The descriptions are typical. T1's photographs allow detailed comparison with flight records, leaving no doubt about the luminous rectangles or capsule-like shapes. The final phase is less securely identified because it was not photographed. The delayed report also made military flight records unavailable, preventing a complete traffic reconstruction. Nevertheless, that description again fits aircraft. Only T1's sphere remains unexplained, but GEIPAN questions its existence: T2 did not see it despite observing alongside T1, and it does not appear in the photographs as T1 claimed. GEIPAN also finds no reason for a real sphere to fade in the photographs as described. The accounts are well substantiated by 2 statements and photographs, except for the sphere component, which cannot be treated as reliable. The case is classified A: misidentification of different aircraft observed at sunset.