Incident · 16 March 1980 · L’Éguille, Charente-Maritime, France
Three witnesses follow a bright orange mass for 45 minutes near Royan
Also known as L’Éguille 1980, Royan 1980
Three people near Royan on the Atlantic coast watched a dazzling orange light move silently under low cloud for three-quarters of an hour in March 1980, and reported it to the gendarmerie, which documented the case with sketches and photographs. GEIPAN tested two searchlight explanations and found neither fitted the brightness and colour described.
Source: GEIPAN (CNES), case 1980-03-00751, classified D (unexplained)
Facts and claims
- claimed At about 12.30 am on 16 March 1980 three witnesses watched a yellow-orange luminous mass in a low overcast sky and followed its silent movements for 45 minutes, going back and forth to alert the gendarmerie; one said it lit up the landscape as in broad daylight. It disappeared quickly between Marennes and Rochefort. Source: cnes-geipan.fr (archived)
- documented All three were heard by the gendarmerie, whose report includes a sketch, a site plan and an annotated photographic plate. Source: cnes-geipan.fr (archived)
- documented GEIPAN examined an eel poacher’s searchlight on the clouds and a discotheque projector, and rejected both mainly because of the colour and the dazzling brightness the witnesses described; with no sufficiently probable hypothesis, it classifies the case D. Source: cnes-geipan.fr (archived)
Connected files
Organizations
- GEIPAN (CNES, France) (investigated by)
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