GEIPAN Case 2014-04-50829 — BORNEL (60) 24.04.2014

Brief

At 22:26 on 24 April 2014 two retired witnesses in Bornel (Oise) observed, without any accompanying sound, an orange incandescent ball approaching from the east; after roughly 35 seconds, the male witness (T1) realized the light was carried on the right leading edge of a slate-gray triangular craft approximately 4 meters wide and 50 cm thick, its upper surface covered in complex stacked tubular elements. The object halted with no deceleration, descended vertically, rotated off-axis to present its apex toward the observer, hovered approximately ten seconds, then climbed and departed on the original heading; the orange light intensity never wavered throughout all attitude changes. GEIPAN conducted cognitive interviews, an on-site reenactment, photo-EXIF analysis, and angular measurements, classifying the case D1 — unexplained phenomenon of medium strangeness.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

40 pages

Classification

D1 (GEIPAN: unexplained phenomenon of medium strangeness)

Programs

GEIPAN, SEPRA, GEPAN

Tags

orange fireball, triangular craft, silent, abrupt halt, vertical descent, off-axis rotation, stationary hover, slate-gray, tubular surface detail, France, Oise, 2014, GEIPAN D1, low cloud ceiling

Key points

• Observation time anchored to 22:26 by EXIF timestamp on Nokia Lumia 920 photo 1 (WP_20140424_22_26_18_Pro.jpg); corrected for a measured 25-second clock lag and quartz drift, the investigator placed the event window at [22:25:00–22:27:04].p.13
• T1 described the triangular object as slate-gray, roughly 4 meters at the base, 50 cm thick, with no regulation aviation lights and a surface of complex stacked rounded/tubular elements 20–30 cm in size running along both lateral edges — 'une bonne dizaine d'éléments sur la gauche et tout autant sur la droite.'p.6
• The orange light source was incandescent (Pantone PNS165), surrounded by peripheral flames vibrating at approximately 3 Hz, produced no trail, and remained continuously visible throughout all attitude changes of the triangular structure — anomalous given the geometry of the craft's leading edge.p.6
• The UAP executed an abrupt halt with no apparent deceleration, followed by a vertical descent, an off-axis rotation of approximately 3/8 turn to the right presenting the apex toward T1, a stationary hover of roughly ten seconds, then ascent and departure on the original southwest heading.p.4
• T1 was a retired professional whose job required memorizing maximum detail from action scenes under pressure; his visual acuity at the time was estimated at 12/10 (16/10 in youth); both witnesses were unmedicated and had not consumed alcohol.p.3
• The couple's dog did not react during the observation but refused food for three days afterward and developed a large patch of alopecia with eczema lasting eight days; two months later minor skin problems persisted under veterinary treatment.p.9
• Photo 1 (EXIF 22:26:17), initially dismissed as flash-ruined, was analytically recovered to yield azimuth 203.33±2° and altitude >23.7° for the UAP at the moment of capture — placing the shot before the complex maneuver phase T1 described, and contradicting T2's recollection of the timing.p.8
• Cognitive interviews using a non-directive method were conducted on 17 May 2014 at the witnesses' home, recorded on audio and video; witnesses then physically reenacted the sequence in approximate real time.p.11
• No other resident of the hamlet of approximately 130 houses reported an observation for that evening.p.9

Verbatim

• Je regardais la télévision dans ma véranda, quand mon regard a été attiré par un objet allongé dont la partie avant droite émettait un lumière orange. J'ai tout d'abord pensé qu'il s'agissait d'un avion dont le moteur était en flamme, craignant même qu'il n'aille s'écraser dans les champs alentours et j'ai demandé à mon épouse de prendre une photo du phénomène dans l'éventualité d'une enquête de l'aviation civile. J'ai ensuite été interpellé par l'absence de bruit, puis par l'étrangeté du vol : horizontal avec passages en vertical.

  p.2

• C'est reparti lentement, à la même vitesse qu'à son arrivée

  p.5

• c'était comme des formes tubulaires

  p.6

• Cela ressemblait à des détails de surface de vaisseaux dans les films de science-fiction. Tels que Star-Wars ou Stargate Fusion.

  p.6

• Cette masse de détails wow, là il a vu quelque chose

  p.8

• J'ai plus confiance en ce que mon mari aurait pu me raconter que dans ce que moi j'aurais pu voir

  p.8

• Ça s'éloignait, puis c'est comme si ça s'est fondu dans les nuages

  p.8

Most interesting

• T1 spontaneously compared the craft's surface texture to spacecraft detail in Star Wars and Stargate films — an unprompted analogy, not suggested by the investigator.
• The orange light remained visible throughout all attitude changes, including orientations where the leading edge should geometrically have obscured it — the investigator flagged this as a physical anomaly.
• Photo 1.5, taken 10 seconds after the UAP photo, shows the couple's dog on the floor; T2 had inexplicably retreated 2.5 meters from the window and pointed the camera at the ground — she retains no memory of stepping back or triggering the shutter.
• T2 discovered GEIPAN the morning after the observation by searching the internet for incidents at nearby air bases (Roissy, Bernes, Taverny, Creil), having found no conventional explanation for a silent fireball.
• During the on-site reenactment a commercial aircraft (TAP793) transited on a similar trajectory at 18:06, followed two minutes later by TRA79N — used by the investigator as an angular scale reference.
• The angular diameter of the orange source shrank from 1.5° at first appearance to 0.2° (12 arcminutes) at the lowest point of the trajectory, a sevenfold reduction consistent with the object moving significantly closer then farther during the descent maneuver.
• The report was finalized on 19 September 2019 — more than five years after the April 2014 observation — with no explanation offered in the available pages for the delay.