SAINT-CHRISTOL (34) 04.01.2017

On 4 January 2017 at about 16:35 in Saint-Christol (34), a friend called a witness to look at a very bright phenomenon in the sky. From his garden the witness saw something star-like that he initially took for Venus, then suddenly noticed it moving. He photographed and filmed the silent UAP. No other account was collected. GEIPAN considers it probably a white recreational or professional drone operated from a nearby field or meadow; see the investigation report. Supporting points are a colour matching some models, movements within drone capabilities, plausible calculated distances and possible operation within visual line of sight from nearby open areas. A structure along the viewing direction could have been filmed and photographed by a professional drone, and a company is known to have produced such material with a white drone around the observation period. However, GEIPAN cannot establish that it was the same drone. It could have been another drone used recreationally, or the same one for another purpose above the village, closer to the witness. With this explanation, GEIPAN finds fairly low residual strangeness, chiefly the inability to distinguish the UAP's precise shape in the photographs and visually identify it as a drone. The case is classified B: probable misidentification of a drone.