BOUGARBER (64) 16.03.2026

On 16 March 2026 at about 23:50, a witness looking southeast saw a flash resembling a star switching on and off, with a star's apparent size but 3–4 times its brightness. From his arrival on the terrace, he counted approximately 10 flashes. It took 3 flashes to locate their fixed position and decide to time them. He then counted approximately 4 flashes separated by 27 seconds, followed by 3 flashes at irregular intervals of about 48 and 52 seconds. No further flash appeared in the following minutes. During the investigation, the duration was revised to under 4 minutes using this calculation: - Phase 1: 3 untimed flashes, with 2 assumed 27-second intervals, totalling 54 seconds. - Phase 2: 4 timed flashes, with 3 intervals of 27 seconds, totalling 81 seconds. - Phase 3: the final 3 flashes, with intervals of 48 and 52 seconds, totalling 100 seconds. The source calls the total, 54 + 81 + 100 = 235 seconds, or approximately 3 minutes 55 seconds, an approximate but realistic duration. The witness accepted it and clarified that the questionnaire's 30 minutes referred to all the time spent watching the sky in the garden. During the flashing sequence, he also saw a very brief shooting star falling towards the south. After the final flash, 2 similar, thin and fleeting shooting stars appeared simultaneously lower in the sky, descending diagonally, one leftward and one rightward. GEIPAN considered these additional events very probably meteors from the antihelion source near Leo, the constellation indicated by the witness. GEIPAN asked the Centre Opérationnel de Surveillance de l'Espace (COSE), the space-surveillance operations centre, to identify satellites visible at the reported direction and elevation, moving slowly enough to seem nearly stationary for 4 minutes. Comparative analysis of COSE's candidates found that the active or inactive geostationary satellites THAICOM 3, PALAPA C2, PAKSAT-1, JCSAT-1 and OPTUS B1 lacked the physical characteristics needed to produce the reported structured periodic reflections. GEIPAN identified METEOSAT-7 AKM (N25353) as the only candidate consistent with all reported features because it was debris with suitable geometry. The source describes a substantial cylindrical rocket body with a motor and a large metallic surface, rotating uncontrolled but at a stable frequency that could produce regular, sometimes intermittent sunlight reflections. It explains that this type of debris occupies an elliptical graveyard orbit and may appear stationary near its highest point, which it associates with the witness's estimated elevation of 50°, because movement over 4 minutes is barely perceptible. Intermittent flashes reinforce that impression. The source states that the body remains in orbit and has been tracked since 1997. GEIPAN attributed the witness's sense of strangeness to the apparent immobility and intermittent flashes. It classified the case A: intermittent sunlight reflections from the METEOSAT-7 AKM rocket body, N25353.