BELVOIR (25) 30.07.2017

On 30 July 2017, 2 female friends reclining in deckchairs on an outdoor terrace in Belvoir (25) were watching the stars when a dark UAP crossed the clear night sky silently. It seemed made up of many triangular elements and quickly disappeared behind the house. GEIPAN found the unusual aspect chiefly in the geometry described by T1, and much less strongly by T2: both an overall triangular shape and triangular constituent elements. The way it appeared and seemed to change added some strangeness, but was compatible with the favoured explanation; see the investigation report. The accounts had fairly good evidential strength. The women had observed calmly and gave careful accounts during the field investigation. Their descriptions supported one another despite inevitable differences in estimates. GEIPAN found that a bird explanation considerably reduced the initial apparent strangeness and fitted many aspects of the sequence. It also fitted the differences between the descriptions and the witnesses' different reactions and feelings revealed in cognitive interviews. A flock of migrating birds appeared the most probable explanation, although significant strangeness remained because angular size and distance estimates were uncertain and a bird passage is very difficult to verify retrospectively. GEIPAN could therefore offer neither certainty nor an explanation for why the witnesses failed to recognise birds. It classified the case B: probable misidentification of birds.