The light on the Maubeuge road

Around six in the morning on 23 September 1979 several people near Maubeuge, in the Nord, watched a point of light moving north-east without a sound. It gave off green and red. Moments later their car was "inondée d'une lumière qui couvre toute la chaussée" (flooded with a light that covered the whole road). The light went out at once. One of the witnesses then saw a shape rise into the sky at 45 degrees. It made no noise and left a red flame behind it.

What is on the record

The source is GEIPAN, the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates reports of unidentified aerospace phenomena. Its file 1979-09-00661 is titled Maubeuge. The three witness questionnaires it publishes are filed under Feignies, the neighbouring commune, and are labelled T2 to T4. No T1 appears among them.

The questionnaires describe two men aged 30 and 60 and a woman of 20, all giving 06.00 and a clear sky. Their accounts differ. One describes a point that grew to the size of a plate and a spinning-top shape "aussi large que la route" (as wide as the road). Another gives a rectangular or cylindrical form rising. The third records a single point moving slowly. Three people describing one event in different terms is normal, and the file does not try to reconcile them.

GEIPAN states that an inquiry on the spot turned up no trace and that no further information was gathered. It classes the case D, its category for a phenomenon investigated and not identified. The published file lists no hypotheses that were tested or ruled out.

Why it sits where it does

This case grades L0, a single account. Several people saw it, but GEIPAN withholds the identities of witnesses, so its record carries no identified witness. All three statements also come from one car and one file, which is not the same as independent sources. The tier measures sourcing and is not a judgement on the investigation. What the record holds is a carful of people, a flooded road and a shape climbing away. What they saw is not resolved here.