The Casteljaloux Orange Light

A witness had a dog along on the evening of 23 October 1978 at Casteljaloux, in Lot-et-Garonne. GEIPAN's summary gives the time as "vers 20", which most likely means about eight o'clock. For several minutes the witness followed a luminous object that threw off an orange light. It was round and it twinkled. It changed speed and changed direction, and the witness heard no particular sound. The dog was frightened. At one point a ball of fire was seen coming out of the object. Then it disappeared all at once.

What is on the record

The archive holds the case file of GEIPAN, the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates UAP reports. The file is short. It carries one statement and no published documents: no gendarmerie report, no sketch and no photograph are attached to the online case. Its one-line résumé calls the object disc-shaped, while the longer description says round. GEIPAN records that the gendarmerie gathered no other testimony "pour corroborer toutes les informations données par l'unique témoin" (to corroborate the information given by the sole witness).

Class D is GEIPAN's category for a phenomenon it investigated and could not explain. It rates this case strange to very strange, with medium to strong consistency. The online file names no ordinary explanation that was weighed and rejected. A reader cannot tell from it whether aircraft, a bright planet or a fire balloon were checked. That gap belongs to the published record and may not reflect the full investigation.

Why it sits where it does

The page grades L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT. GEIPAN withholds witness identities and refers to this person only as "un témoin", so the record carries no identified witness. It is also a single account in the plainest sense, since nobody else came forward. The tier measures sourcing, not the quality of GEIPAN's investigation, and it is never a verdict. What moved over Casteljaloux that evening is not resolved here.