Document · 28 January 1994
GEIPAN case file: « AF3532 » Coulommiers, 28 January 1994
GEIPAN's public case file on Air France flight 3532, with its summary, classification and attachments: the investigation report, a Météo-France radiosonde check, the air-defence (CODA) chronology and the gendarmerie statements. Our copies are a capture of the case page and the investigation report.
Sources: GEIPAN (CNES), case 1994-01-01345
Facts and claims
- documented At 13:14 on 28 January 1994, the crew of an Air France A320 flying Nice–London observed a phenomenon over Coulommiers (Seine-et-Marne). The chief steward, then in the cockpit, thought it looked like a weather balloon; the captain and copilot described a brown or dark red disc that changed shape before suddenly disappearing. Reims air traffic control had no traffic in the sector. Source: doc-geipan-af3532.pdf
- documented An unidentified radar track was recorded for 50 seconds by the Cinq-Mars-la-Pile radar. It crossed the flight's path, matched no filed flight plan, and disappeared at the same moment as the visual phenomenon. GEIPAN says the investigators remained cautious about correlating the radar signature with the phenomenon. Source: doc-geipan-af3532.pdf
- documented The witnesses made their official reports to the gendarmerie and to SEPRA (CNES) three years later, when the case was cited in the press. A 2012 Météo-France check found that a sounding balloon had crossed the aircraft's path an hour before the sighting, and would have been coming down far to the southeast by then. Source: doc-geipan-af3532.pdf
- documented GEIPAN classifies the case D1: unexplained, of medium consistency, with a marked strangeness. It names an unknown atmospheric optical phenomenon or a flexible object such as a balloon envelope drifting on the wind as possible but unprovable hypotheses. It says the late testimony, the absence of the steward's statement and a radar track inconsistent with the object observed weaken the case. Source: doc-geipan-af3532.pdf
Connected files
Organizations
- GEIPAN (CNES, France) (published by)
Incidents
- Air France flight 3532 sighting (documents)
People
- Jean-Charles Duboc (describes) — GEIPAN's file records the captain and copilot describing a brown or dark red disc
Videos
- France 3 report on the Air France 3532 sighting and its radar trace, with Jean-Charles Duboc (30 March 2007) (same case as)
- National Press Club - November 12th, 2007. UFO Close Encounters (discussed in)
More documents
- Spanish Air Force file 670603: aircraft and radar encounter over Montánchez, 3 June 1967
- French Air Ministry file on the Orange-Caritat sighting, 15 June 1951 (GEIPAN case 1951-06-00002)
- CIA/FBIS Foreign Press Note FB PN 90-123: "USSR: UFO sightings no. 2 — General Maltsev comments" (1990)
- Brazilian Air Defence Command report on the events of 19–20 May 1986 ("Official UFO Night")
- RNZAF UFO file AIR 1080/6/897 Vol. 1: investigation of the December 1978 east-coast South Island sightings (Kaikōura)
- Spanish Air Force file 761119: the luminous phenomenon over the Canary Islands, 19 November 1976