The Sélestat Boomerang

Around 1.45 on the morning of 30 October 1994 a couple left friends' house in a village in the Bas-Rhin. A glowing circle hung five or six metres above their car. It was turning on itself, with lights set evenly around its rim. They drove out of the village fast. Further on it was ahead of them again, and now a triangle edged with the same lights had joined the circle. They put it at about ten metres a side and ten to fifteen metres up. For several kilometres it kept pace with the car at around 80 km/h. When the road changed direction it sped away. By then, they said, it had the shape of a boomerang.

What is on the record

GEIPAN is the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerospace phenomena. Its file holds the gendarmerie papers of the Sélestat company. The driver compared the lights to halogen headlamps, white tinged with green. He switched on the car radio to test for interference and the music came through clearly. At the end, he said, the object stood about 50 metres ahead, beat like wings and turned four times before leaving at high speed. His companion describes the same ring, triangle and pacing, though she put the object higher, at 15 to 20 metres. A sketch shows the triangle with the ring inside it.

The gendarmes checked. Two air bases reported nothing on radar. Neighbouring brigades asked around and found no one. The manager of a local nightclub said its laser shows only swept from side to side and drew no shapes.

GEIPAN's summary adds that a second couple in another car on the same road described the same thing in strikingly similar terms. The released file does not bear that out. Its two statements come from the driver and his passenger in one car. The closing report of 20 December 1994 says the two were the only people to have reported it to the unit. GEIPAN keeps the case in class D, which means it investigated and could not explain it.

Why it sits where it does

The page grades L0, a single account. GEIPAN withholds witness identities, so the record carries no identified witness. The tier measures sourcing, not the quality of the inquiry. What paced the car that night is not resolved here.