The Rugby-Ball Object at Ars-sur-Moselle

A young couple were out in their car near Ars-sur-Moselle, south-west of Metz, on the evening of 27 February 1990. They saw an object the shape of a rugby ball with three powerful white searchlights. It was flying gently at a very low height and made no sound. They put it at about two and a half to three metres across. The couple followed it for around ten minutes. Then it disappeared at very high speed.

What is on the record

GEIPAN is the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerial phenomena. Its file holds one paragraph of description and two witness questionnaires. The summary line reads "Observation d'un objet rond / ovale silencieux avec 3 puissants projecteurs blancs" (a silent round or oval object with three powerful white searchlights).

The questionnaires come from a man and a woman, both aged 20. His form gives the time as 20:50 and puts the object 60 metres away. It describes an egg shape three metres across, slow and silent. Her form gives 20:30 to 20:50 and a ball three to four metres across. She records its colour as red, which does not sit easily with the white searchlights in the description. GEIPAN's page does not reconcile the two.

GEIPAN's conclusion is brief. The investigation "n'a pas permis d'identifier cet objet à un aéronef connu ni à aucun autre phénomène" (could not match this object to any known aircraft or to any other phenomenon). The page does not say which aircraft or phenomena were checked, and it publishes no investigation report. The case sits in class D, which means GEIPAN investigated and could not explain it.

Why it sits where it does

The page grades L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT. GEIPAN withholds the identities of its witnesses, so the record carries no identified witness. Two people saw it, but they were together in one car, so the file holds one shared sighting. A tier measures sourcing, not the quality of GEIPAN's investigation. What flew low beside the couple's car is not resolved here.