UFO in France identified as plane

Summary

A case from the GEIPAN in the Sarthe region of France, dated January 21, 2017, was classified as a plane contrail observation. A witness captured a photo showing a characteristic "horse shoe" shape typical of aircraft contrails. This shape is caused by air emissions separating from the plane's fuselage before rejoining in its wake. The plane's direction, moving away from the observer, allowed for a clear and prolonged view of the two contrails. Lighting conditions also played a key role: although the plane itself wasn't directly illuminated by the sun, the background sky still reflected enough light to make the contrail visible. The image clearly shows increasing brightness upwards, consistent with the described conditions.

Flightradar recorded several planes in the direction indicated by the witnesses, near Alençon, southeast of Ancinnes, around 18:10 local time (17:10 UTC). One of the flight paths matches the observed plane with high probability, as the witness saw it from below, explaining the "horse shoe" orientation. Additionally, this path was in an area already out of direct sunlight. Witnesses estimated the event lasted about 10 minutes, but this didn't align with a typical plane's movement across the sky. The observation was actually shorter, and overestimating duration is a common error. Moreover, two photos taken a minute apart don't show the same contrail, confirming the event's brevity. For these reasons, the GEIPAN classified the case as "A", meaning