[D438] DE GRAND BOURGTHEROULDE (27) VERS ROUEN (76) 13.02.2023

From 10 to 13 February 2023, a woman driving on the D438 between Grand Bourgtheroulde (27) and Rouen (76) reported the same observation at the same time on 4 consecutive days. On the final day, she recorded a mobile-phone video. The French summary describes a moving point of light in the night sky. Only the filmed sighting of 13 February is examined, because information is lacking about the preceding 3 days; see the investigation report. GEIPAN assesses the case as having low unusualness and good evidential strength, with a single witness and a video of the UAP. It identifies reflections caused by the powerful headlights of a truck approaching the witness's vehicle from the opposite direction. Under GEIPAN's criteria, evidential strength is the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively substantiated. An astronomical object was considered, but the short sighting and rapid movement reported by the witness were inconsistent with that explanation. A fireball was also considered and rejected because monitoring networks had no reports for that date and area. Closer examination of the video shows that the UAP appears at the same time as an oncoming truck equipped with a powerful headlight. Analysis with IPACO identifies an unwanted optical reflection on the opposite side of the image's optical center from that headlight, in a centrally symmetric position. The predicted reflection coincides with the UAP. The UAP also moves in step with the truck's headlight in the video, corroborating this analysis. Other, fainter points of light in the video correspond to the same artifact caused by headlights on vehicles following the first truck; these headlights dazzle the camera sensor less. The case is classified as A: camera artifacts caused by vehicle headlights, or ghost images.