The black stain over Fumel aerodrome

At about 17.30 on 23 October 2015 a man drove to Fumel aerodrome, in the commune of Montayral, to "prendre l'air avec son chien" (get some air with his dog). He drove along the hangars and parked near the surveyor's markers. He let the dog out, and when he turned round he saw "une tâche noire dans un brouillard noir" (a black stain in a black fog) high and far off in the sky. It had a kind of handle, an arc of a circle at its lower left. It stayed perfectly still and made no sound. The sky was blue and clear of haze. He had no binoculars and no camera. He looked away for a few seconds, and when he looked back it had gone.

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 2015-10-09361 holds an investigation report and a questionnaire, and the case went before GEIPAN's panel of experts.

GEIPAN names three factors that defeat the ordinary explanations: twenty minutes without moving, the sudden disappearance and a distant round shape with a protrusion. A star fails on appearance and disappearance. An aircraft fails on the stillness. A helicopter fails on appearance and noise and was not detected by radar. An eye problem fails on the stillness. A toy balloon is too small, a solar balloon unlikely. A hot-air balloon was the strongest candidate, but the protrusion did not point downwards and the vanishing was quick. GEIPAN put its probability "bien inférieure à 50%" (well under 50 per cent). The investigation report scores it at 30 per cent. The département's balloon pilots were contacted and did not reply.

The file calls the witness precise and credible. It rates strangeness at 0.70 and consistency, its gauge of an account's detail and credibility, at 0.75. The case is classed D1: unexplained, of medium strangeness.

Why it sits where it does

This case grades L0, a single account. GEIPAN withholds the identities of witnesses, so its record carries no identified witness, and there is no photograph. The tier measures sourcing, not the investigation's quality. What the record holds is a still, dark shape in a clear sky and a state inquiry that could not make any explanation stick. What it was is not resolved here.