[D95B] DE REBIGUE (31) VERS PECHABOU (31) 26.02.2023

On 26 February 2023 at about 20:00, T1 and 3 other family members were in a car travelling between Rebigue (31) and Pechabou (31) when they saw 2 closely spaced white points moving very slowly and apparently very low in the sky. The observation spanned 5 minutes, including a 3-minute interruption when the surroundings hid the UAP. GEIPAN judged the evidential support moderate: 4 people were present but only 1 submitted a formal account, with no photographs or video. GEIPAN defines evidential support as the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively established. Two hypotheses were investigated (see the investigation report): Venus and Jupiter in conjunction, just over 3° apart low in the west, or an A400M on exercise with only a few position lights illuminated in what the source calls stealth mode. GEIPAN rejected the conjunction because the lights were arranged horizontally, whereas the planets were aligned at 65° to horizontal; the UAP kept moving even when the witnesses stopped; and successive reported directions—east/north, then south, east-southeast and northeast—did not match the conjunction's western position. ADSB-Exchange and ADS-B.NL data confirmed an A400M flying low in the area during a large military exercise. GEIPAN attributed its unusual appearance to a temporary configuration with reduced lighting and its transponder switched off. The azimuths and elevations matched the first phase and the period when the car was stopped closely. The final phase was harder to match because radar data were missing with the transponder off, and another aircraft approaching Toulouse-Blagnac at the same time might have caused confusion. GEIPAN linked the absence of audible sound to the aircraft's substantial distance, wind from the north carrying sound away, and the exercise's reduced-signature configuration. It classified the case A: A400M aircraft.