{"it":{"id":"UFO-TEP1981","name":"Trans-en-Provence","kind":"ufo","sub":"Historical sighting","place":"Trans-en-Provence, Var, France","lat":43.5,"lon":6.48,"date":"1981-01-08 5 pm","rep":"He saw a 2.5 m object land.","off":"Disputed: GEPAN unexplained; sceptics point to a vehicle trace.","src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Trans-en-Provence case","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case"}],"tags":["Sightings"],"sum":"On 8 January 1981, farmer Renato Nicolaï, 55, saw a 2.5 m object land about 50 m away. GEPAN found the soil compressed by 4 to 5 tonnes and heated to 300–600 °C.","nsrc":1,"new":1,"qs":["A French government lab found soil heated to 300-600 °C and plants with 30-50% less chlorophyll. Can a car do that?","Police said tyre tracks; the national UFO office said unexplained. When two arms of the same state disagree, who should we believe?","If this really is the best-documented landing on record, why has it never moved the official position anywhere?"],"yt":"A French government study found pressed, heated soil and plants with less chlorophyll. Could a car do that?","rel":["GOV-FR"],"hook":"A French farmer said a 2.5 m object landed outside his house. A government lab later tested the soil.","why":"France's official office found soil pressed and heated and plants changed near the mark, but called its results too vague to confirm the account. Sceptics point to a vehicle."},"S":{},"rec":{"id":"UFO-TEP1981","sum":"\"A fairly strong gust of wind.\" That is how a farmer in Trans-en-Provence, southern France, described the sound of an object that he said landed on a terrace below his house on 8 January 1981. He said it was shaped like \"two overturned plates\", lead-coloured, about 2.5 m wide, and that it rose again within half a minute.\n\nThe man, named in later accounts as Renato Nicolaï, 55, said he watched from about 30 m away. Gendarmes arrived the next morning at about 11:30, photographed a circle about 2 m across with skid-like marks, and took soil and plant samples. France's official unidentified-phenomena office, then called Gepan, began its own fieldwork on 17 February.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is what the laboratories found. In its Technical Note 16 of 1 March 1983, Gepan reported strong mechanical pressure on the soil and heating that had not exceeded 600 °C, and noted that the rain made exact figures impossible. In the alfalfa near the trace, chlorophyll A was down 33% and chlorophyll B 28%, with larger falls in other pigments.\n\nGepan concluded that a significant event had occurred but that the findings were too vague to confirm the account. The gendarmes, and sceptics since, think the marks may simply be tyre tracks from a vehicle. The office still files the case as unexplained.\n\nWhat would it take for a single witness and a patch of soil to settle a question either way?","qs":["A French government study found pressed, heated soil and plants with less chlorophyll. Could a car do that?","Police said tyre tracks; the national office called it unexplained. When two arms of the same state disagree, who do you believe?","Gepan admitted its results were vague. Is honesty about limits a strength or a weakness?"],"gal":[],"ms":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Trans-en-Provence case","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case"},{"id":"VUFO-TEP1981-2","t":"CNES GEPAN Technical Note 16 (PDF)","u":"https://www.cnes-geipan.fr/sites/default/files/note_tech_16.pdf"},{"id":"VUFO-TEP1981-3","t":"CNES GEIPAN case file 1981-01-00849 (Trans-en-Provence)","u":"https://www.cnes-geipan.fr/fr/cas/1981-01-00849"}],"pts":[{"p":"Farmer Renato Nicolaï (55) saw a 2.5 m object land about 50 m away.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Trans-en-Provence case","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case"},{"p":"GEPAN: ground compressed by 4–5 t and heated to 300–600 °C.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Trans-en-Provence case","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case"},{"p":"Alfalfa chlorophyll 30–50% lower than expected.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Trans-en-Provence case","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case"},{"p":"Police: traces looked like car tyre tracks.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Trans-en-Provence case","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case"}]},"img":null,"md":{"h":"img/m/UFO-TEP1981-16x9.webp","w":1600,"hh":900,"alt":"Trans-en-Provence, Trans-en-Provence, Var, France — Trans en Provence","by":"Tredok","lic":"CC BY-SA 2.0","lu":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0","p":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trans_en_Provence.jpg","g":false,"ct":true,"cap":"","sec":[]},"hh":null,"hs":{}}