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

Brief

On the evening of 24 April 2014, a retired couple observed from their veranda in Bornel (Oise) a silent, elongated object emitting intense orange light that flew horizontally, transitioned to vertical movement, then hovered after roughly 400 meters of travel before executing a three-quarter rotation — at which point the witness perceived a triangular shape of approximately 3–4 meters per side, appearing to be composed of several superimposed elements. The object subsequently moved toward the Bornel woods and merged with overcast cloud cover; no acoustic signature was detected at any point. An attempted photograph on a Nokia Lumia 920 yielded no exploitable image. The couple's nine-year-old Briard sheepdog refused food for 48 hours following the event, and GEIPAN classified the case D1 — unexplained, average strangeness.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

13 pages

Classification

D1 (GEIPAN scale: unexplained, average strangeness)

Programs

GEIPAN

Tags

triangular UAP, orange luminosity, silent flight, stationary hover, 270-degree rotation, dog behavioral effect, Oise France, 2014, GEIPAN D1, overcast low-visibility conditions

Key points

• Witness T1 first mistook the object for an aircraft with an engine fire, then was arrested by its complete silence and an anomalous flight profile combining horizontal and vertical movement.p.2
• After approximately 400 meters of flight, the object performed a stationary hover followed by a three-quarter rotation to the right, shifting the orange light from the right side to the left — at which point the triangular form became apparent.p.2
• The triangular shape was estimated at 3–4 meters per side, apex pointing toward the witness, and appeared composed of several superimposed elements.p.2
• Total duration of observation: 3 to 4 minutes, beginning between 22h10 and 22h15 local time on 24 April 2014.p.3
• The attempted photograph (Nokia Lumia 920) produced nothing exploitable; the sighting was otherwise a direct naked-eye observation through horizontal veranda skylights.p.4
• Object tracked along a NW-to-SE axis over roughly 500 meters, appearing at 60° elevation and disappearing between 15° and 30° above the horizon toward the Bornel woods.p.6
• Environmental effect formally recorded: the couple's nine-year-old Briard sheepdog showed complete appetite loss for 48 hours following the event.p.6
• Witnesses cited long familiarity with commercial and general aviation near Bernes aerodrome and Roissy CDG as the explicit baseline ruling out conventional aircraft.p.9
• Questionnaire signed at Bornel on 29 April 2014 — five days after the event — with the witnesses noting they had found no matching explanation in publicly available photographs or videos.p.12

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.

  p.2

• 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

  p.2

• Absence d'appétit de notre chienne(berger de brie) âgée de 9 ans, pendant quarante huit heures

  p.6

• nous nous sommes aperçus que rien ne cadrait avec un moteur d'avion en feu

  p.9

• A ce jour nous sommes très interrogatifs

  p.9

Most interesting

• The three-quarter rotation is a precise kinematic claim: the orange light migrated from the object's right side to its left, consistent with a 270-degree axial turn — a maneuver with no analog in conventional fixed-wing flight.
• The witness described the object's form as 'éthérée' (ethereal) while simultaneously assigning it a concrete triangular geometry and a multi-layered structure, a combination that resists easy conventional categorization.
• Overcast sky conditions that obscured stars and the moon did not degrade visibility of the phenomenon — T1 specifically noted 'vision nette du phénomène' despite low cloud cover, implying self-luminosity rather than reflected light.
• The dog behavioral anomaly — 48-hour anorexia in a nine-year-old Briard sheepdog — was entered in the GEIPAN form's dedicated 'environmental effects' field, indicating GEIPAN's standard intake protocol actively solicits this class of data.
• Both witnesses were retired and residing in Bornel since 1994, with decades of baseline exposure to Roissy CDG approach corridors and Bernes aerodrome traffic; they described observing one or two airliners the same evening as a direct comparison point.
• The Nokia Lumia 920 was a high-specification smartphone for 2014 with optical image stabilization — its failure to capture anything exploitable under these conditions is a data point in itself, consistent with a brief, high-contrast event in a low-light environment.