SALLANCHES (74) 17.11.2024

During the night of 16–17 November 2024, a witness living in Sallanches (74) saw a red point of light at the summit of Tête du Colonney. He assumed people were illuminating the summit with smoke flares, as is traditionally done for the feast of Saint John. The red point then moved along the eastern side of the ridge before being replaced by a white light that split into 3 distinct points. These continued eastward. He estimated a total duration of 5 minutes: about 2 minutes of red light and 3 minutes of white light. GEIPAN considers the sighting moderately unusual and well supported: there is only 1 witness and no photograph, but the account is fairly precise. It identifies 3 wingsuit BASE jumpers making a night jump from Aiguille de Varan (see the investigation report). In GEIPAN’s terminology, evidential support is the amount of reliable, objectively established information collected for an account. The description is entirely consistent with this rather unusual sighting. A local paragliding club confirmed that 3 wingsuiters flew at night from Aiguille de Varan during the full moon, using smoke flares for the red colour and lamps inside their suits for the white lights. GEIPAN classifies the case A: 3 wingsuit parachutists making a night jump from Aiguille de Varan.