RUEIL-MALMAISON (92) 23.08.2018

On 23 August 2018 at 23:44, a witness was surprised by a patch apparently above the clouds, first blue and then yellowish-orange. He took a photograph and video that intrigued him further. The phenomenon was initially stationary, then moved. No particular sound was heard during the roughly 30-second observation. His wife watched too, but for less time. Only one account was collected. The investigation report finds that bright patches projected onto low clouds by ground-based “Skyrose” searchlights fit the reported UAP characteristics: - An elongated shape made up of grouped elements is typical of these patches. - Blue is also typical; the yellow-orange colour can be explained by interchangeable coloured filters at the searchlight outlets. - Silence and sweeping movements fit Skyrose operation. A Thursday is less typical, but GEIPAN cannot exclude a private event or equipment testing. Most such misidentifications occur with a uniform low or fairly low layer of stratocumulus or nimbostratus, dense enough to reflect a searchlight beam visibly toward witnesses. A low cloud layer at about 200 m altitude was established here. The witness’s main anomaly was his impression that the UAPs lay behind the clouds. GEIPAN suggests he may never previously have seen searchlight patches on cloud bases and may have imagined that lights “under” clouds would be sharper and brighter, unaffected by cloud. In fact the patches are on the cloud base rather than beneath it, made visible by beams striking water droplets, with visibility varying according to cloud density. GEIPAN identified a plausible searchlight location at the Manoir complex of the Paris Country Club, directly along the beam revealed in the witness’s photograph. It could not, however, confirm that searchlights were present. GEIPAN classifies the observation B: a fairly high probability of light patches from ground-based Skyrose-type searchlights reflected on the cloud layer.