Trans-en-Provence

Trans-en-Provence

On 8 January 1981, at about 5 pm, a man working on a terrace behind his house in the Var saw a craft come down, rest on the ground for a few seconds and leave. Next morning he showed his wife the marks; neighbours alerted the gendarmerie, which photographed two concentric circles 2.20 and 2.40 m across and took samples. GEPAN, the group at the French space agency CNES that studied such reports, published the case in March 1983 as technical note no. 16. Its laboratories found the soil compacted and heated to no more than 600°, and Dr M. Bounias of INRA found pigment losses in wild alfalfa that were greater nearer the trace. GEPAN concluded that the interpretations were “trop diverses et vagues” (too varied and vague) to confirm the witness’s account, and that whether the plant changes matched his description “reste à savoir” (remains to be seen).

Source document: Original public reference