GEIPAN Case 1989-09-01666 — « LES TUILES » BERTRE (81) 04.09.1989

Brief

On the night of 3–4 September 1989 at approximately 04:30, retired commercial director M. A.F. was drawn to his window by intense light at his isolated property in Bertre (Tarn, France) and observed a spinning-top-shaped object roughly 2.5 by 3 metres, covered in luminous facets, stationary above his roof and projecting a beam onto an adjacent alfalfa field. The object disappeared instantaneously after approximately thirty seconds with no sound, odour, or unusual animal reaction. The following day, roof tiles over a 3-by-5-metre zone showed discolouration, clockwise twisting, and a sagged ridgeline; moss and lichen in that zone appeared thermally degraded. SEPRA — the UAP unit of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales — dispatched investigators who collected tile and vegetation samples for laboratory analysis and ultimately classified the case D1 (unexplained).

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

27 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED (GEIPAN D1 — unexplained)

Programs

GEIPAN, SEPRA, GEPAN, CNES

Tags

top/toupie-shaped, multi-faceted luminous object, stationary hover, downward beam projection, physical trace — roof tiles, clockwise tile twist, thermal vegetation damage, instantaneous disappearance, Bertre Tarn France, 1989, GEIPAN D1, SEPRA investigation

Key points

• The witness, suffering from chronic insomnia, saw an intense exterior light, descended to the adjacent alfalfa field at approximately 04:30, and identified its source as an object above his rooftop projecting a beam downward onto the field — a luminous square roughly 10 metres per side.p.8
• The object was described as top/toupie-shaped with multiple luminous facets, approximately 2 to 2.5 metres by 3 metres, hovering stationary above the rooftop.p.8
• The observation lasted approximately thirty seconds and ended with an instantaneous, total disappearance; no sound, odour, or unusual dog reaction was recorded at any point.p.8
• Physical inspection of the roof revealed discolouration of tiles over a three-metre length at the assumed hovering position, with moss and lichen showing apparent thermal damage — detaching easily and crumbling abnormally.p.9
• The contractor who restored the property in 1985 confirmed tiles were twisted clockwise over approximately 3 metres by 5 metres, that the ridge had sagged at that location creating gutters, and that this damage was inconsistent with the original construction state.p.14
• SEPRA/CNES investigators were dispatched to the site, photographed it, produced a sketch reconstruction, and collected tile and vegetation samples for laboratory analysis.p.9
• The witness's wife, sleeping in a separate room, confirmed she heard and saw nothing; gendarmes noted no indication of fabrication and described the witness as 'honorably known' in the commune with full mental faculties.p.13
• After press coverage, the gendarmerie received additional accounts from local witnesses who reported a luminous aerial object in the same area during the same night.p.27
• The witness noted retrospectively that approximately two months prior his young mare had broken her brand-new hobble and escaped from the alfalfa field, and flagged a recently discovered uranium deposit in a nearby hillside as a speculative environmental anomaly warranting investigation.p.26

Verbatim

• a ... I1 y a probablement quelque chose.. . W.

  p.24

Most interesting

• The tiles under the object's reported hovering position were found to be twisted clockwise — a rotational physical trace spatially consistent with the witness's description of a spinning-top-shaped object.
• SEPRA's on-site official offered a notably candid press statement — 'Il y a probablement quelque chose' — an unusual public acknowledgment of a probable physical phenomenon from a French state scientist.
• The witness deliberately delayed reporting to the gendarmerie to first determine whether other local witnesses had seen the same phenomenon, and consulted the village mayor before approaching authorities.
• The case file, originally routed to both the Air Force Regional Commander and the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie, remained outside public view for eighteen years before GEIPAN's 2007 disclosure release.
• The witness explicitly rejected an extraterrestrial interpretation while simultaneously affirming certainty in what he observed — stating he had never previously believed in UFOs and still did not.
• Press coverage of the case generated a secondary wave of gendarmerie witness reports, suggesting the luminous aerial object had been seen by others in the same area on the same night.
• A uranium deposit had recently been discovered in a hillside near the property; the witness flagged this himself as a possible — though explicitly speculative — environmental connection for investigators to pursue.