MAUBEC (38) 03.12.2023

On 3 December 2023, a witness outside his home in Maubec (38) watched a faint pale-yellow UAP without a visible trail for about 20 seconds. It moved east to west on a straight, almost horizontal path. GEIPAN judges the evidential strength moderate: a single witness who reported the event 5 months later, without photographs or video. Under its criteria, evidential strength is the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively substantiated. The investigation concluded that he probably saw a slow meteor, a rare but previously documented phenomenon; see the investigation report. GEIPAN bases this on an elongated shape characteristic of a meteor entering the atmosphere, interpreted as including a short trail merged into the main body, despite the initial report of no trail; diffuse pale-yellow color and faint brightness consistent with a small meteor; and a straight, nearly horizontal grazing trajectory lasting about 20 seconds. Although this path and duration are uncommon, and the duration may have been overestimated because of the late report, a similar event in France on 7 October 2021 was recorded by several FRIPON cameras, as referenced at www.fripon.org. GEIPAN classifies the case as B: probable observation of a meteor.