- What is the role of the Gendarmerie Nationale in French UAP investigation?
- The Gendarmerie Nationale is GEIPAN's primary field investigator. When a civilian or military witness reports a UAP observation, local gendarmes open a formal proces-verbal (PV) documenting the witness statement, the observation conditions, and supporting materials. GEIPAN then analyzes the PV and assigns a classification. The PVs in this corpus come from brigades in Charente-Maritime (L'Eguille 1980), Ardeche (Pranles 1979), Ille-et-Vilaine (Etrelles 2014), and Bas-Rhin (Selestat 1994).
- What did the Etrelles 2014 gendarmes observe?
- On June 1, 2014 at 23:07 local time, two on-duty gendarmes on a proximity patrol in the Zone d'activite du Piquet in Etrelles (35) observed a dark mass approximately 1,000 meters overhead with two small, faintly greenish-white lights directed toward the ground. The observation lasted roughly five minutes before the object moved off without sound. GEIPAN case 2014-06-50078 documents the full investigation.
- What did the L'Eguille 1980 gendarmes document?
- Proces-verbal N 328/80 (Gendarmerie Brigade de Royan) records three witnesses' observations of a luminous yellow-orange cigar-shaped mass near the L'Eguille cemetery on the night of March 15-16, 1980. The object descended from the sky trailing a comet-like tail and stabilized approximately 7 to 8 meters above the ground before departing.