GEIPAN Case 2018-07-50618 — SAINTE-FOY-DE-PEYROLIERES (31) 08.07.2018

Brief

On the night of 8 July 2018 at approximately 23:30, a civilian witness observed from his garden what he described in two distinct phases: first, multiple intensely bright star-like bodies apparently descending through the atmosphere, then a single silent geometric object displaying four luminous points in a rectangular configuration that morphed into a triangle and back before accelerating and disappearing, with the entire sequence lasting roughly 20 seconds. The witness contacted GEIPAN within 10 minutes, initiating an investigation that ran six years and included a field cognitive interview, two expert committee reviews (June 2022 and May 2023), and formal consultations with French military air operations (CNOA) and the CNES Space Surveillance Center (COSE) for GRAVES radar data. The CNOA radar return covering the observation window was requested in October 2018 but was either never delivered or misfiled — a loss the GEIPAN directorate explicitly acknowledged as "vraiment regrettable." GEIPAN assigned the case classification D1, the agency's highest designation for phenomena of unexplained nature and unknown origin.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

67 pages

Classification

D1 (GEIPAN phenomenological classification: unexplained, nature and origin unknown)

Programs

GEIPAN, GRAVES radar, COSE, CNOA

Tags

nocturnal lights, shape-shifting, rectangular form, triangular form, silent, high-altitude descent, rapid acceleration, multi-phase observation, France, 2018, D1, GEIPAN

Key points

• The witness left a 149-second voicemail at 23:41 — 10 minutes after the sighting — describing 4 horizontally aligned luminous points that became 2, then shifted to a triangle before vanishing silently; no photo or video was captured.p.3
• Duration estimate revised upward from the initial phone report of 2-3 seconds to approximately 20 seconds as established by the formal technical questionnaire.p.8
• Phase 1 comprised 5-6 extremely bright bodies resembling intensely heated stars in apparent atmospheric descent; Phase 2 was a single silent object with a rectangular wing form shifting to triangular and back.p.9
• No sound was detected at any point (C7: 'Non'); the observation was continuous with the UAP fading visually into the night as it receded.p.9
• Military radar data from CNOA, solicited 29 October 2018, was never received or was misfiled — acknowledged as a critical investigative gap by the GEIPAN directorate.p.6
• GRAVES radar data from COSE/CNES was requested late June 2022; a response was received 7 July 2022.p.7
• Trajectory: initial steep descent from very high altitude, followed by a direction change to near-horizontal flight covering roughly 90 degrees of azimuth from north to south-south-east before disappearing.p.10
• The witness calculated that if the object descended from approximately 100 km in 10 seconds, the implied mean velocity would be roughly 10 km/s — approximately Mach 30.p.14
• A military green helicopter reportedly flew approximately the same trajectory as the UAP two days after the event; the witness estimated the helicopter passed noticeably closer than the UAP had.p.9
• The investigation involved a field reconstitution and cognitive interview on 11 December 2018, two expert committee sessions (21 June 2022 and 9 May 2023), and azimuthal video reconstructions submitted by the witness in July 2021.p.3

Verbatim

• la seule chose qui peut confirmer ce que je décris, c'est une détection radar. Sans cela, mon témoignage n'a aucune crédibilité et j'en ai pleinement conscience

  p.6

• Phase 1 : Plusieurs éléments, semblable à des objets étoilés extrêmement brillant Phase 2 : Forme en aile rectangulaire, puis passage en formation triangle, puis forme en aile rectangulaire à la fin

  p.9

• je crois qu'on n'est pas seul sur terre

  p.11

• Ce que je sais c'est que le corps humain ne peut pas supporter une telle accélération fulgurante et notamment qui s'en suivrait d'un tel ralentissement si brutal, sans quoi c'est le coma assuré, pour ne pas dire le pire.

  p.13

Most interesting

• Six years of investigation — including two expert committee sessions, cognitive interview, GRAVES radar consultation, and azimuthal video reconstructions — were devoted to an observation lasting roughly 20 seconds with no surviving sensor data.
• The single most potentially corroborating piece of evidence, the CNOA military radar return, was requested in October 2018 but was either never delivered or misfiled, leaving the investigation without its only independent detection source.
• The witness declined to file a formal gendarmerie procès-verbal unless another witness came forward, reasoning that an uncorroborated report would have no credibility — then spent years providing some of the most meticulous lay documentation in the GEIPAN public archive.
• The GRAVES radar system — a bistatic HF radar operated by the French Air and Space Force for space surveillance — was consulted as a secondary detection resource, an unusually high-tier instrument for a civilian UAP case.
• A military helicopter reportedly retraced approximately the same trajectory as the UAP two days after the observation, which the witness found notable because the helicopter appeared to pass considerably closer than the UAP had.
• The witness submitted azimuthal video reconstructions more than three years after the event and continued corresponding with GEIPAN investigators through at least 2022, exhibiting an unusual degree of sustained engagement with the inquiry.
• The witness self-identified the implied velocity as approximately Mach 30 and noted that, unlike fifth-generation fighters, the object produced no audible propulsion signature of any kind.
• The witness's mother was present in the garden throughout the observation but did not see the phenomenon; no corroborating witness was ever identified despite the case remaining open for six years.