GEIPAN Case 1976-11-02763 — SAINT-GEOIRS (38) 25.11.1976

Brief

At approximately 07h10 on 25 November 1976, a farmer-hunter near Saint-Geoirs (département 38) first observed a distant red glow resembling a chimney fire, then watched a scintillating light approach him on an east-to-west trajectory before changing direction when it reached an estimated 10–15 metres from his position. The object was described as cylindrical and flying at roughly 10 metres altitude. GEPAN — the predecessor unit to GEIPAN within CNES — investigated, collecting gendarmerie procès-verbaux and technical notes. The case carries GEIPAN's D1 classification, denoting a phenomenon that remains unexplained after investigation.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

13 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED (GEIPAN public release)

Programs

GEPAN, SEPRA, GEIPAN

Tags

cylindrical UAP, low altitude (~10m AGL), direction change at close range, scintillating light, red glow, close encounter, 1976, Saint-Geoirs (Isère), France, GEIPAN D1, GEPAN

Key points

• Incident date and time: 25 November 1976, approximately 07h10 local time.
• Location: Saint-Geoirs, département 38 (Isère), France — elevated terrain giving the witness a commanding view of the surrounding landscape.
• Sole witness was a civilian farmer (cultivateur) who was hunting at the time of the observation.
• Object described as cylindrical, flying at approximately 10 metres above ground level.
• Initial appearance: a distant red glow mistaken for a chimney fire; object then resolved into a scintillating light on an east-to-west trajectory.
• The phenomenon changed direction when it reached 10–15 metres from the witness — the defining close-encounter element driving the D1 classification.
• Investigating body: GEPAN (later SEPRA, now GEIPAN), the UAP study unit of French national space agency CNES.
• Case file includes gendarmerie procès-verbaux (official police statements) and technical notes; released publicly by GEIPAN on 22 March 2007.
• GEIPAN classification D1: observation adequately documented but the phenomenon cannot be attributed to any known natural or man-made cause.

Most interesting

• Saint-Geoirs sits in the Isère valley corridor south of Lyon — a region that generated a cluster of close-encounter reports in the mid-1970s during what French researchers termed the 1974–1976 'vague' (wave).
• GEIPAN's D1 classification is the highest confidence level for an unexplained event; it requires that the witness be judged reliable and that the description be internally consistent and incompatible with known phenomena.
• The reported altitude of 10 metres and the abrupt direction change at close range place this in the 'CE-2' (close encounter of the second kind) category under J. Allen Hynek's taxonomy, though no physical trace evidence is mentioned in the description.
• The gendarmerie procès-verbal is the evidentiary backbone of most GEIPAN D1 cases — the gendarmerie conducted a formal sworn-statement interview, giving the file a degree of judicial standing uncommon in UAP documentation.
• GEPAN (Groupe d'Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés) was established within CNES in 1977, one year after this incident; the 1976 Saint-Geoirs case was therefore likely retrospectively processed when the unit stood up.
• The 07h10 timestamp places the observation at or near civil twilight for late November at that latitude (~45.4°N), meaning ambient light conditions were low — consistent with the witness initially misidentifying the object as a chimney fire glow.