GEIPAN Case 2012-08-08284 — VOLX (04) 08.08.2012

Brief

On the night of 8 August 2012 at approximately 23h00, a 38-year-old witness lying on a terrace in Volx (04130) observed a silent, rectilinearly-traveling object for roughly five seconds while sky-watching during the Perseid meteor shower. The object was described as weaver's-shuttle-shaped, green-brown with diffuse edges, and oriented perpendicular to its direction of travel, with a dark red circle at its center. The witness estimated its speed at approximately 600 km/h and its altitude below the cruising floor of small commercial jets (under 1,000–1,500 m), and noted a possible distortion of the sky ahead of the object in the direction of travel. GEIPAN assigned the case classification D1, denoting an unusual unexplained aerial phenomenon.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

23 pages

Classification

D1 (GEIPAN internal classification — unexplained)

Programs

GEIPAN

Tags

weaver's shuttle shape, silent flight, green-brown coloration, diffuse edges, dark red center, rectilinear trajectory, broadside orientation, high speed (~600 km/h), low altitude (est. <1500 m), possible sky distortion, France, 2012, Perseid period

Key points

• Single witness, age 38 at the time, lying on a terrace in Volx (04130); no other witnesses.p.3
• Observation lasted approximately 5 seconds beginning around 23h00 on 08/08/2012, under a fully clear, moonless, Milky-Way-visible sky with a light ~5 km/h breeze.p.3
• Object described as a 'navette de tisserand' (weaver's shuttle) with vaporous, diffuse edges in green-brown, bearing a dark red circle at its center.p.4
• The long axis of the object was perpendicular to its direction of travel — it flew broadside, not nose-first.p.4
• Witness removed in-ear headphones mid-observation to check for noise; the object was completely silent.p.4
• Speed estimated comparable to a Mirage 2000 on training runs over the Durance valley (~600 km/h or more).p.5
• Estimated altitude below that of small commercial jets (A319/A320 corridor), roughly 1,000–1,500 m or lower.p.5
• Witness tentatively perceived a slight distortion of the background sky ahead of the object in the direction of travel, though explicitly flagged this as inferred rather than certain.p.5
• The Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Cadarache (including the ITER fusion project) is located approximately 20 km south of the observation site.p.10

Verbatim

• J'ai alors vu cette forme (c.f. dessin du PAN §4.1) aux contours flous/vaporeux, couleur vert/brun avec un rond rouge « sombre » au centre.

  p.4

• Ce qui m'a le plus surpris, c'est que la forme de navette était perpendiculaire à la trajectoire (c.f. dessin du PAN §4.1).

  p.4

• Sans lâcher le PAN des yeux, je me suis levé pour garder le contact visuel et j'ai arraché mes écouteurs afin de pouvoir noter la présence de bruit éventuel.

  p.4

• Le PAN glissait sans bruit.

  p.4

• Je présumerais qu'il y avait une légère déformation du fond du ciel « devant » (i.e. dans le sens de la trajectoire) la forme. Mais n'étant vraiment pas sûr, je ne m'étendrai pas plus sur cette partie devinée plus que réellement vue.

  p.5

• La vitesse estimée est similaire aux mirage 2000 venant s'entraîner en NTE au dessus de la vallée de la Durance (~600km/h … peut-être plus).

  p.5

• A titre informatif, à une vingtaine de km (au Sud) se trouve le Centre d'Études Nucléaires de Cadarache; notamment d'actualité ces dernières années pour le projet ITER.

  p.10

Most interesting

• The witness was an experienced naked-eye sky observer who actively distinguished satellites, aircraft, and meteors by behavioral signature — making the failure to classify the object significant rather than incidental.
• The object's broadside orientation relative to its flight path (long axis perpendicular to trajectory) is a persistent characteristic reported in a subset of French GEIPAN cases and defies conventional aerodynamic logic.
• The witness noted the conspicuous absence of bats that had hunted insects over the terrace on prior evenings — an environmental detail he explicitly flagged as unusual for the night in question.
• Cadarache, home to the international ITER fusion reactor project, sits roughly 20 km south of Volx; GEIPAN field investigators routinely note proximity to nuclear facilities as contextual data without asserting a causal link.
• GEIPAN's D1 classification (used for the most unusual and unexplained cases) was assigned despite the relatively short observation window, reflecting the agency's judgment that the reported characteristics exceeded known atmospheric or man-made explanations.
• The witness's familiarity with Mirage 2000 training profiles over the Durance valley gave his speed estimate a concrete calibration anchor that most civilian witness reports lack.