Two Police Officers at Vaucresson

At about 9.40 on New Year's night in 1981 two "gardiens de la paix" (police constables) at Vaucresson, west of Paris, noticed a light. A yellow-orange glow was twinkling between 100 and 150 metres up. As they followed it they made out a circular craft turning on itself. It moved at a slow and steady pace with no sound and seemed to begin a descent. It gave off several flashing lights and left a short trail behind it. After about a minute the landscape hid it and the sighting ended.

What is on the record

GEIPAN is the unit of the French space agency CNES that investigates unidentified aerial phenomena. Its file holds one paragraph of description and two witness questionnaires, one per officer. Both are men and both give the time as 21:40. One describes a descending "engin" (craft) moving slowly. The other describes a ball, multicoloured and slow, in total silence. Neither form gives a distance or a size. GEIPAN's summary line calls it "un objet en forme d'assiette" (a plate-shaped object).

Those are the only details on the page. GEIPAN says no further information was gathered and the phenomenon "reste inexpliqué" (remains unexplained). It publishes no investigation report and lists no explanation it tested and set aside. The case sits in class D, which means GEIPAN investigated and could not explain it.

Two officers saw it at the same moment, which gives the account some weight. They watched it together, though, so the file holds one shared sighting and not two independent tellings.

Why it sits where it does

The page grades L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT. GEIPAN withholds the identities of its witnesses and does not say whether the two officers were on duty, so the record carries no identified witness. A tier measures sourcing, not the quality of GEIPAN's investigation. What the constables saw coming down over Vaucresson is not resolved here.