The Saint-Sauveur Burning Ball

At 7.15 on the morning of 26 November 1993 a woman at Saint-Sauveur-de-Montagut saw a luminous yellow ball from her home. It was roughly round, and bursts of light showed at various points on its surface. She judged it to be about 500 metres away and 200 metres up. It made no sound. For about an hour it did not move. Then it set off south at a fair speed, without changing shape or colour, and a black trail was visible in its wake. She filmed it.

What is on the record

GEIPAN, the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerial phenomena, holds the case as SAINT-SAUVEUR-DE-MONTAGUT (07) 26.11.1993. Its own summary says only that the witness watched "une boule jaune semblant se consumer" (a yellow ball that seemed to be burning up) and that it stays unexplained.

The detail comes from the gendarmerie report attached to the case. The witness came to the brigade that afternoon. Météo-France reported a clear sky and a light north wind and had launched no weather balloon. The air force knew of no major exercise and civil air traffic control of no notable activity. CNES had launched no stratospheric balloon. The gendarmes also noted that a balloon climbs fast and does not sit still for an hour. They watched her film and checked from her home that it showed the same surroundings. They walked to the spot below where the ball had hung and found no trace. A telecoms mast on a hill in the line of sight carried no lights.

The file is not wholly consistent. The report calls the witness Mme, with her name blacked out, but GEIPAN's testimony sheet codes her as a man of 30. The report is numbered 471/93, while GEIPAN lists it as PV n°571. The film is not in the file.

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 the investigation. What the witness filmed that morning is not resolved here.