Incident · 8 January 1981 · Trans-en-Provence, Var, France
Trans-en-Provence landing trace (France, 1981)
Also known as Trans-en-Provence, Trans-en-Provence case
On the afternoon of 8 January 1981, a man building a small pump shelter on his terraced property in Trans-en-Provence, in the Var, heard a whistling sound and saw a grey, zinc-coloured object about 2.5 metres across descend and touch down a few dozen metres below him. After a few seconds it rose vertically and vanished at high speed. Where it had stood he found a circular mark about 2 metres wide.
The gendarmerie documented the trace and took samples the next day, and France's official UAP office, then GEPAN, followed up with a detailed laboratory study published as Technical Note 16. The analyses found soil compaction, traces of heating and plant changes that varied with distance from the trace, but could not identify their cause or confirm the witness's account. The case remains classified as unexplained (D); sceptics argue the marks were made by vehicles on the site.
Sources: GEIPAN (CNES), case 1981-01-00849 · Zetetique (sceptical review)
Facts and claims
- documented A single witness reported a grey circular object about 2.5 m across that landed for a few seconds on his property and left vertically at high speed, leaving a circular trace about 2 m wide. The gendarmerie recorded the trace and took soil and plant samples the next day; GEPAN investigated in February. Source: GEIPAN case file: Trans-en-Provence, 8 January 1981 (GEPAN Technical Note 16)
- documented Laboratory analyses found significant soil compaction, slight metallic and phosphate deposits, heating below 600 °C and plant damage that diminished with distance from the trace, but could not quantify the phenomenon or prove the witness's account. GEIPAN classifies the case D: an unusual phenomenon whose origin could not be determined. Source: GEIPAN case file: Trans-en-Provence, 8 January 1981 (GEPAN Technical Note 16)
- claimed A detailed sceptical review argues that the marks match tyre skids from vehicles manoeuvring on the witness's track (or a cement mixer used on the site), and that the single-witness account may have been a prank; GEIPAN has not reclassified the case. Source: zetetique.org (archived)
Connected files
Documents
Organizations
- GEIPAN (CNES, France) (investigated by)
Videos
- Citizen Hearing 2013: A Global Phenomenon, Part 1 (discussed in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: A Global Phenomenon, Part 2 (discussed in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Truth, Lies & the Cover-up, Part 1 (discussed in)
- Renato Nicolaï and the Trans-en-Provence plant analyses (documentary excerpt) (subject of)
Mentioned in documents and records
More incidents
- Valensole landing: a craft and two small beings in a lavender field
- Three game wardens on night patrol watch lights zigzag at great speed
- Car stalls and its lights die as a fireball passes, Mayet
- Gendarmes on the A10 motorway follow a light that lit up the landscape
- Three witnesses follow a bright orange mass for 45 minutes near Royan
- A scientist and his neighbours watch a stationary light sweep the ground with a blue beam