[h=3]Studies by GEPAN, SERPA & GEIPAN (France, 1977–present)[/h]
Main article: Groupe d'études et d'informations sur les phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés
In 1977, the French Space Agency CNES Director General set up a unit to record UFO sighting reports.
[79] The unit was initially known as
Groupe d’Etudes des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non identifiés (GEPAN), changed in 1988 to
Service d'expertise de rentrée atmosphérique Phenom (SERPA) and in 2005 to
Groupe d'études et d'informations sur les phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés (GEIPAN).
[79]
GEIPAN found a mundane explanation for the vast majority of recorded cases, but in 2007, after 30 years of investigation, 1,600 cases, approximately 28% of total cases, remained unexplained "despite precise witness accounts and good-quality evidence recovered from the scene" and are categorized as "Type D".
[79] In April 2010, GEIPAN statistics stated that 23% of all cases were of Type D.
[80] However, Jean-Jacques Velasco, the head of SEPRA from 1983 to 2004, wrote a book in 2004 noting that 13.5% of the 5,800 cases studied by SEPRA were dismissed without any rational explanation, and stated that UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin.
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