Night-time flashes in the Risoux forest reclassified as an aircraft

Summary

In August 1988, two military trainees on a night bivouac in the Risoux forest near Morez, Jura, observed an object producing intermittent flashes that moved at high speed on a sinuous path without any sound. The intense light did not seem to match an aircraft. The case was initially classified D.

A later GEIPAN review concluded the phenomenon could be explained as a confused sighting of an aircraft with anti-collision lights. The complete darkness of the forest setting, the lack of reference points and the observer's perspective would have distorted the perception of trajectory and speed. The classification was changed to B.