Person
Jean-Charles Duboc
Also known as Duboc
- Captain, Air France (flight AF 3532, 1994); former French Air Force pilot
Jean-Charles Duboc is a retired Air France captain and former French Air Force pilot. On 28 January 1994, flying Air France 3532 to London at 39,000 feet, he and his copilot saw a huge reddish-brown disc near Paris in broad daylight. A steward and the copilot first took it for a weather balloon. Duboc estimated it at about 1,000 feet across, hanging motionless below them, before it turned transparent and vanished within seconds.
He says the French air defence centre recorded a one-minute radar track crossing his flight path at the same time. The case was studied by France's COMETA group and by GEIPAN, the space agency's official UAP office, and he told it at the 2007 National Press Club panel.
A 2007 France 3 report found the radar echo was more than 40 km from the object and the size of a light aircraft, which the Taverny air defence centre dismissed as an erratic return, and Duboc himself came to accept it was not his object. GEIPAN keeps the case as unexplained (D1), but with caveats. The crew reported it three years later, the steward never gave a statement, and the radar track does not match what they saw. A drifting balloon envelope or an unknown optical effect remain possible but unprovable explanations.
Sources: National Press Club (2007) · GEIPAN case file (AF 3532)
Facts and claims
- claimed Air France captain Jean-Charles Duboc described his crew's 1994 sighting of a huge object near Paris, which was studied by France's COMETA group and GEIPAN. — Jean-Charles Duboc Source: National Press Club - November 12th, 2007. UFO Close Encounters at 15:43
- claimed At the 2007 National Press Club panel he said that at 1 p.m. on 28 January 1994, at 39,000 ft near Paris, his crew saw a red-brown object with blurred outlines, first taken for a weather balloon, which he estimated at about 1,000 ft across, stationary, and which became transparent and disappeared in 10 to 20 seconds. — Jean-Charles Duboc Source: National Press Club - November 12th, 2007. UFO Close Encounters at 15:43
- documented GEIPAN classifies the case D1, unexplained, but notes that the testimony came three years late, the steward never gave a statement, and the 50-second radar track is inconsistent with the object observed; a sounding balloon crossed the path an hour earlier, too early to explain it. Source: GEIPAN case file: « AF3532 » Coulommiers, 28 January 1994
- claimed In a 2007 France 3 report he described the object as “between 400 and 500 metres in diameter” and said “it dematerialised in front of us”; the report showed the military radar echo was more than 40 km from the object and consistent with a light aircraft, and by then Duboc accepted the trace was not his object. — Jean-Charles Duboc Source: France 3 report on the Air France 3532 sighting and its radar trace, with Jean-Charles Duboc (30 March 2007) at 1:50
Connected files
Events
- National Press Club panel on UFOs and aviation safety (testified in)
Documents
- GEIPAN case file: « AF3532 » Coulommiers, 28 January 1994 (described in) — GEIPAN's file records the captain and copilot describing a brown or dark red disc
Incidents
- Air France flight 3532 sighting (witness)
Videos
- France 3 report on the Air France 3532 sighting and its radar trace, with Jean-Charles Duboc (30 March 2007) (appears in)
- National Press Club - November 12th, 2007. UFO Close Encounters (appears in)