(DPT) LOIRET (45) 09.01.2020

On 9 January 2020, four military members of the surveillance team at Orléans-Bricy air base BA123 reported unidentified red lights north of the base. A gendarmerie patrol found nothing unusual at the scene. All four personnel were interviewed. Three other independent witnesses also reported similar observations. This case covers all seven accounts. GEIPAN assesses the evidential substance* as remarkable: seven accounts, most detailed, including three independent witnesses. Two videos recorded by T1 also supported the analysis. The investigation concluded that the UAPs were probably distress flares launched from an uninhabited area, probably a field (see investigation report). This is supported by: - red colour, characteristic of distress flares; - appearance ranging from points to balls depending on witness distance; - strong brightness; - rapid ascents followed by slower parachute-braked descents along curved or arc-shaped paths; - individual appearances lasting only a few seconds at most, confirmed by T1’s two videos; - trails reported by three witnesses, either luminous and the same colour as the UAP, or white and smoke-like. The high speeds that surprised T5 and T7 are compatible with flares. GEIPAN explains the apparently horizontal movement reported by T1 and T5 separately. For T1, the first video shows a vertical component as well as horizontal motion. In the second, the distance and brief appearance prevent a precise naked-eye assessment that the motion was exclusively horizontal. For T5, nearby open fields provide unobstructed views, with only distant trees and houses in hamlets and villages to the south/southeast. GEIPAN invokes parallax: an object with little or no intrinsic horizontal movement, lying between a moving observer and the distant background, changes its apparent position as the observer’s viewpoint changes. In these open fields, when T5 moves horizontally, distant trees, houses or villages to the south/southeast seem to move in the opposite direction. The analysis describes this as creating an illusion that the UAPs move horizontally opposite to the observer. The gendarmes investigated thoroughly on site but could not identify whoever launched the flares. GEIPAN suggests that someone might have discharged flares in open, uninhabited countryside simply to dispose of them. Triangulation from the witnesses’ viewing directions does indicate an entirely uninhabited area among fields. GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable distress flares. *Under GEIPAN’s criteria, evidential substance is the quantity of information collected for an account that is considered reliable.