AITON (73) 20.11.2021

On Saturday 20 November 2021, between 17:10 and 17:30, several people saw dark patches of ‘smoke’ in the sky. Intrigued, they took photographs. Only 1 account was collected. GEIPAN considers the account well supported: there were several witnesses, although only 1 submitted an account, and numerous photographs of the UAP. Its appearance is fully consistent with airliner contrails: a wispy, smoke-like appearance, elongated moving shapes, and a dark colour with an orange tinge towards the setting Sun. The sighting has all the typical features of this kind of observation, occurring between sunset and the end of twilight. The paths of the ‘smoke’ correspond to an air corridor used by airliners. GEIPAN requested radar records of aircraft movements at the time from CNOA, the French Air and Space Force’s National Air Operations Centre. The supplied radar map covers 16:00–16:30 UTC, or 17:00–17:30 local time, and shows heavy traffic in this corridor (see the attached map). The witness found the dark colour and the impression that the trails rose vertically unusual. GEIPAN explains the colour by the time of day, sunset. The UAP appeared to rise vertically but were actually approaching the witness. Illustrations of this type of sighting are available in the contrail article on the Méprises-du-ciel website. GEIPAN classifies the case A: observation of contrails.