The Orange Light at Chabeuil

Some time between 7.30 and 7.40 on the evening of 28 February 1978 a motorist at Chabeuil, in the Drôme, saw a very bright orange object moving fast across the sky from north to south. Her son saw it too. Neither of them heard any sound. The object steadied, then moved off slowly towards the south and disappeared "instantanément" (instantly). By GEIPAN's account the sighting lasted three minutes.

What is on the record

GEIPAN is the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerial phenomena. Its file on this case is short: one paragraph of description and two witness forms. The mother's form gives her age as 30 and puts the object 150 metres from the car. She judged it "la grandeur d'une voiture" (the size of a car). Her son was ten. He said it was as big as a Dyane, the small Citroën. Both forms describe an orange, fire-coloured object and total silence.

No trace was found at the scene. GEIPAN says no other testimony was gathered and the phenomenon "reste inexpliqué" (remains unexplained). It publishes no investigation report and no statement from the gendarmerie. Nor does it list any explanation it tested and set aside. The case sits in class D, meaning GEIPAN investigated and could not explain it. Its label is "phénomène étrange à très étrange" (a strange to very strange phenomenon) with medium to strong consistency.

The thinness cuts both ways. Two people saw the same thing from the same car, which is not quite independent testimony. And the size and the distance are both judgements made by eye at night. An unfamiliar light gives no fixed scale, so one estimate leans on the other.

Why it sits where it does

L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT. GEIPAN withholds the identities of its witnesses, so the released record carries no identified witness. The tier measures sourcing, not the quality of GEIPAN's investigation, and it is never a verdict. What crossed the sky over Chabeuil is not resolved here.