Tourdun 2018, aircraft photographed and intermittent light

Summary

In April 2018, a witness took a long-exposure photo of the sky aimed at the zenith between the constellations of the Great Bear and the Lion. Initially, he thought the visible trail in the image was a normal airplane. However, during the observation, he noticed that the ground in his field of view intermittently lit up for two seconds. The GEIPAN concluded that it was an Airbus A321 flying from Munich to Lisbon. Using online stellar calibration tools, the exact position of the aircraft in the sky and its trajectory were identified. Although the sequence of the anti-collision lights on the aircraft was unusual, investigators concluded it was a technical malfunction.

The perception of the intermittent ground light was described inconsistently by the witness, suggesting a possible psychological distortion. This phenomenon, known as "amorajado," is common in UFO observations: an initial surprise can lead to noticing other details that would otherwise go unnoticed. Moreover, the fleeting nature of the light and its position in the visual field, not directly in the line of sight, point to a local source, such as a car with headlights or a flashlight. Despite these uncertainties, the coherence of the photographic data and the aircraft's trajectory led the GEIPAN to classify the case as "A," meaning explained by a conventional aircraft.