The Black Pebble over Ménil-Hubert

At 11.45 on the night of 29 May 2013 a man was driving home on the D25 towards Ménil-Hubert-sur-Orne, on the phone to a friend. Just short of the village he saw something enormous above the cemetery. It was black and shaped like a "galet" (a pebble), rounded at both ends and wider at the back, with two red lights at the front and two at the rear. "Là je vois un truc de fou dans le ciel" (I'm seeing something crazy in the sky), he told his friend, and hung up. He pulled over to film it. By the time he had the camera ready the object had started to move very slowly north-west, humming on a high note. It was flying so low that a hedge and the rise of the ground hid it. He reversed up a hill to find it again, and it was gone. The sighting lasted about a minute.

What is on the record

GEIPAN is the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerial phenomena. An investigator interviewed the witness at home thirteen days later, walked the road with him and went with him to the gendarmerie to make a statement. The published report puts the object about 30 metres up. The witness estimated it at 25 metres across and a metre thick. Had it landed, he said, it would have covered the whole 66-metre cemetery.

The report weighs two explanations and sets both aside. An object re-entering the atmosphere would probably have drawn other witnesses, and none came forward. This object moved too slowly, made the wrong sound and left no trail. Thai lanterns were ruled out because the object moved against the wind. Astronomical confusion was dismissed.

GEIPAN sees "aucune raison de douter de la sincérité du témoin" (no reason to doubt the witness's sincerity). It still rates the case only moderately consistent, as a lone witness with no photograph and a sketchy description. It classes it D1, meaning it 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. A tier measures sourcing, not the quality of GEIPAN's investigation. What hung over the cemetery at Ménil-Hubert-sur-Orne is not resolved here.