The Thiant Triangle of Lights

At around 11pm on 1 May 1990 a young couple were driving near Thiant when the man noticed a red point in the sky. It was not moving. He stopped the car and they watched it for about ten minutes. Then the point shot sideways very fast and stopped again. After about two minutes it came towards them. Now they could see three white lights in the shape of an isosceles triangle, with the red point in the centre. The whole thing flew over the car and left at high speed. They heard nothing at any stage.

What is on the record

GEIPAN, the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerial phenomena, holds the case as THIANT (59) MAI 1990. It classes it D. Class D means GEIPAN looked into it and could not explain it. The page rates the case strange to very strange with medium to strong consistency.

The description records one line of inquiry. The sighting was reported in the press, and still no other witness came forward. It ends "le phénomène n'a pu être expliqué" (the phenomenon could not be explained).

The file holds two testimony sheets and no documents. The sheets carry the name of Haspres, a neighbouring commune, rather than Thiant. The first records a man of 30 and a start time of 11.05pm. GEIPAN names no explanation it tested or rejected, so the page does not say whether aircraft or other traffic in the area that night were checked. It gives no size, height or distance for the lights.

Why it sits where it does

L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT. GEIPAN withholds the identities of its witnesses, so the released record carries no identified witness even though two people saw the lights. The tier measures sourcing, not the quality of the investigation. What passed over the car is not resolved here.