GEIPAN Case 2015-10-09361 — MONTAYRAL (47) 23.10.2015

Brief

On 23 October 2015 between 17:31 and 17:58 local time, a lone civilian walking a dog at the Fumel aerodrome in Montayral, Lot-et-Garonne, observed a motionless black patch bearing N-NE at roughly 10-20 degrees elevation, with an apparent diameter slightly smaller than the simultaneously visible Moon. The phenomenon produced no sound, left no environmental trace, and vanished instantaneously the moment the witness glanced away. The witness had no recording device and was the sole observer. GEIPAN classified the case D1 — unexplained, medium strangeness.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

11 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Programs

GEIPAN

Tags

dark sphere, stationary, naked eye, instantaneous disappearance, Montayral France, aerodrome, 2015, GEIPAN D1, dark haze

Key points

• Observation ran from 17:31 to 17:58 local time (27 minutes), with one brief interruption when the witness checked the car clock.p.4
• Bearing N-NE, elevation 10-20 degrees above horizon; position did not change at any point during the observation.p.7
• Apparent angular diameter approximately 1.5 cm at arm's length — slightly smaller than the Moon (2 cm at arm's length), which was simultaneously visible as an on-site calibration reference.p.6
• Sky conditions were perfect: clear, no clouds, no wind; the Sun was S-SW and the Moon E-SE, both at approximately 5-7 degrees elevation.p.5
• The phenomenon disappeared instantaneously when the witness looked away for an instant — no fade, no movement, no residual trace.p.2
• Shape described as a three-quarter sphere with a flat side and a loop or handle element, set within a surrounding dark haze — 'la forme d' un oeil vu de profil.'p.3
• Color described as deep black, as if a section of sky had been cut away to expose darkness beneath; no halo, no trail, no luminosity.p.6
• Engine noise from an aircraft or paramotor was audible but originated from the opposite direction, allowing the witness to explicitly rule it out as the source.p.5
• No recording device was available; the witness had left their phone in the car.p.5
• Single witness; no corroborating observers; no physical effects on the environment, animals, or equipment.p.4

Verbatim

• Je regarde direction N-NE et je vois loin au dessus de l' horizon une "tache " noire dans le ciel d' un diametre apparent presque aussi grand que celui de la Lune !

  p.2

• Je l' ai observee pendant au moins 20 minutes , elle etait la totalement immobile ne bougeant pas d' un iota.

  p.2

• a 17h58 exactement , il avait disparu comme s'il n' avait jamais ete la ! Je ne l' ai pas vu disparaître car j' avais detourne le regard l' espace d' un instant, meme pas le tps de me retourner, disparu sans laisser la moindre trace !

  p.2

• Noir profond, tenebres obscures , comme si on avait enleve un bout de ciel pour laisser paraître ce qui est en dessous !

  p.6

• Noir de chez noir !!!

  p.6

• Etonnement et curiosite et plus tard un peu de panique face a l' inconnu .

  p.11

Most interesting

• The witness spontaneously hypothesized that the object might be the atmospheric shadow of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, noting that the Sun was positioned nearly opposite the phenomenon — a geometrically coherent if scientifically implausible explanation the witness offered on 3 November 2015.
• The simultaneous presence of the Moon gave the witness an on-site angular-size calibration target, yielding the unusually precise apparent-size datum of 1.5 cm vs. 2 cm at arm's length.
• The witness explicitly self-interrogated their own perception: 'est-ce mon cerveau qui donnait a une forme indefinie une forme connue?' — a rare display of epistemic self-awareness in a raw witness statement.
• Despite a 27-minute observation window, the phenomenon vanished in the fraction of a second required to glance at a car clock — a disappearance mode recurrent across high-strangeness GEIPAN D1 cases.
• The witness used GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to annotate a landscape photograph marking the phenomenon's approximate position, an unusually methodical approach for a civilian questionnaire submission.
• The witness estimated range at 150-200 km and altitude at approximately 50 km based on atmospheric blurring of the object's edges relative to distant terrain — an intuitive but unverifiable method that GEIPAN analysts would have had to evaluate independently.