AVRIEUX (73) 14.07.2022

On the evening of 14 July 2022, a witness in his garden in Avrieux (73) was waiting for fireworks in neighboring villages when, around 22:15 or 22:23 according to his account, a white ball appeared moving in a straight line. It traveled southwest to northeast for about 5 minutes before a mountain hid it. He recorded a mobile-phone video. The case has moderate evidential strength*: one witness and a video of limited use, without visible contextual reference points. *Under GEIPAN's criteria, evidential strength is the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively substantiated. The investigation identifies the ISS (see investigation report), based on: - A 'ball' shape typical of descriptions of a bright satellite. The witness might have described only its video appearance rather than his naked-eye view, but the account does not establish this. - White color. - About 5 minutes of observation against a maximum possible ISS visibility of 6 minutes 30 seconds. - The ISS's presence around 22:32, the supplied video file's creation time, differing from the reported 22:15/22:23 times. - A straight path matching southwest appearance and disappearance behind an east-northeast mountain before the full passage ended. High mountains restrict visibility. The ISS's complete passage would begin and end at 10° elevation, undoubtedly behind the mountains from this location; the witness could not see all of it and indeed lost it behind a mountain. The video cannot adequately show movement and is blurred because the camera failed to focus correctly. Classified A: observation of the ISS.