[HOAX] "Glowing Tic-TaC" UFO in southern France [Possibly a Drone]

[TheCholla]

[ADMIN: Turns out this was a hoax


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9nKGrRRZqk

Article:

UFO observed in the sky from Montpellier to Perpignan: a hoax signed by Rémi Gaillard!

The Montpellier troublemaker revealed the deception this Saturday.

"In 1938, Orson Welles made believe in an invasion of aliens on the radio. A century later, thanks to you, I just made the same hoax", explains this Saturday in a video posted on Twitter the troublemaker from Montpellier.

In this sequence of 2 minutes 30, he indicates having acted with the complicity of Loic Spadafora founder of Météo Gard - Héraul, an information Twitter account dedicated to "forecasts, news and live monitoring of meteorological phenomena", and Marie, breeder of horses in the Hérault

"It is by doing anything that we become UFOs" concludes Rémi Gaillard, citing the media that he trapped including the TF1 newspaper , France 3, Midi Libre or L'Indépendant who had relayed this "information" .

Source: https://www.lindependant.fr/2021/11/13/ovni-observe-dans-le-ciel-de-la-region-un-canular-signe-remi-gaillard-9925699.php

[Original first post follows]

Some fun for you guys, that one is pretty weird. A UFO has been reported by several witnesses in the region of Montpellier, France. There are 4 videos from 11/9, one from last night, 11/11. They are all in the same area near Montpellier, in an approximate radius of 10 km. But allegedly there has been reports of sighting as far as 200 km from there (Andorra, Narbonne, Perpignan). These last ones would need confirmation.

Palavas-les-Flots, 11/9 :
Source: https://twitter.com/MteoGardHerault/status/1458215287774404611?s=20


Palavas-les-Flots again (?), 11/9 :
Source: https://twitter.com/MteoGardHerault/status/1458399092372037633?s=20


One from inside a car, Cournonterral, 11/9 :
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MrtzZbeD6c


Montpellier, 11/9 :
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9DfCv4dHHM


One from Marsillargues, 11/11 :
Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=396531608835709&id=103319728156900&m_entstream_source=timeline


The only plausible explanation I see is a drone. But that has to be an elaborate hoax, either with a drone travelling a long distance, or being sent from different locations in the same night. Or same drones sent from different places. This thing is very luminous. If the reports of sightings more than 100 km away are true, that's even more puzzling.
It's been reported by the local news channel, nobody knows what it is at this point.
Any ideas ?

 

[jarlrmai]

Or multiple people collaborating / copycatting with a similar drone lighting configuration.

 

[jarlrmai]

Some of the video frames seem to show there are 2 lights, also it rotates around the centre and doesn't travel purely along its longest line, this seems to suggest 2 point lights in a line rather than a contiguous capsule shaped object. Brightness and a little motion blur could be enhancing the capsule shape impression.

I think drone with 2 lights on it.

 

[Itsme]

According to this source:

One can observe a rectangular luminous shape wandering in the dark night. According to our fellow meteorologists, the event was observed from Montpellier, Cournonterral, Palavas-les-Flots or Sète. Reports have even been reported from Andorra, Narbonne and Perpignan.

Snapshot at around 0:30 in the third video of post #1:

 

[Itsme]

You can recognize a rectangle in the other videos as well:

 

[jarlrmai]

Do those coincide with a rotation of the object?

There's a lot going on affecting the apparent shape frame to frame, video to video.

Motion blur because of the object and camera moving and lowlight persistence on the phone camera.
Object going in and out of focus.
Poor quality video with compression.
Objects passing in between camera and object.

 

[Itsme]

The human eye still performs much better in the dark than a phone camera. I guess the rectangular shape is what eye witnesses have reported. If you study the phone camera images with that knowledge, you do see what was reported: a rectangular shape. It mostly reveals itself when there is little motion blur.

On a side note: during the 1989 Belgian triangle flap, a rectangular shape was also reported occasionally.

 

[jarlrmai]

The human eye still performs much better in the dark than a phone camera. I guess the rectangular shape is what eye witnesses have reported. If you study the phone camera images with that knowledge, you do see what was reported: a rectangular shape. It mostly reveals itself when there is little motion blur.

On a side note: during the 1989 Belgian triangle flap, a rectangular shape was also reported occasionally.

Most of the points in the videos where the squarer shape appears seem to coincide with camera movement in a different axis than the object movement, I think they are likely down to motion blur rather than representing the "true" shape.

 

[Mick West]

Most of the points in the videos where the squarer shape appears seem to coincide with camera movement in a different axis than the object movement, I think they are likely down to motion blur rather than representing the "true" shape.

I agree. Something closer to the true shape of the light can be seen here in the sensor reflection.

So a thinner line of light/lights

Drone seems by far the most plausible explanation. As suggested by Scott Brando:

Source: https://twitter.com/ufoofinterest/status/1459131584486027264

Which looks like a much thinner line of lights.

 

[Mick West]

The "Tic-Tac" shape here is due to the light going out of focus. Notice the near leaves are in focus, but the far leaves (and hence the light bar) are out of focus.

 

[Ravi]

My first thought was drone with a light strip. It moves like a drone, accelerates like a drone too. And it is obviously not miles up, but rather close. The (copy cat) witness accounts in other cities I do not take seriously.

It all looks like a person giving the viewers a nice light show (rotation and moving back and forth).

 

[TheCholla]

I copy what I posted on Reddit. There was a segment today on the main French national TV channel on this. It's in French but there is an interesting interview of the person (the owner of the farm) who filmed the latest video from yesterday (the one with the cow).

She says the UFO was lighting an area around her cow, like a 10 m radius-circle, when she arrived. She turned on her own light, and the UFO flew away (this will surely spark a discussion on cattle mutilation lol). She insists everything was silent, no wind, animal noises, and more importantly no sound from the UFO. She made a tour of her property to check nobody was playing with a drone nearby. But again, if it was a drone, it was silent, if we trust what she says of course. If it's a prank it's quite an elaborate one.


Source: https://www.facebook.com/MeteoGardHerault/videos/401689844957189

 

[Rory]

The rotation of the light and descent in a vertical position is nice. What would they have used to do that?

 

[jarlrmai]

A drone can easily rotate and descend vertically.

 

[Ravi]

But again, if it was a drone, it was silent, if we trust what she says of course. If it's a prank it's quite an elaborate one.

Not saying she is lying, but how can be ever check her story? I just don't easily trust accounts like that.

 

[Rory]

A drone can easily rotate and descend vertically.

Oh, I didn't know that. I did a quick search and the answers I got seemed to be saying only highend ones could. But now I search again it seems pretty straightforward:

https://www.quora.com/How-does-a-drone-rotate-on-the-spot-with-only-downward-facing-propellers

I must have chosen better words the second time.

 

[jarlrmai]

Not saying she is lying, but how can be ever check her story? I just don't easily trust accounts like that.

It seems fairly evident that the cow pen/area is lit by something else in the latest video.

 

[Ravi]

It seems fairly evident that the cow pen/area is lit by something else in the latest video.

Indeed.. I distrust this whole shebang.

 

[TheCholla]

It's pretty obvious (if she is not lying) that she is not talking about the light in her video. She is with someone when they shoot the video, we can hear her say "turn it on!". She of course knows that's her own light. She must be talking about what happened before.

 

[jarlrmai]

It's pretty obvious (if she is not lying) that she is not talking about the light in her video. She is with someone when they shoot the video, we can hear her say "turn it on!". She of course knows that's her own light. She must be talking about what happened before.

And of course the unusual behaviour happens just before the video starts/after it ends as usual.

 

[ufoofinterest]

A drone can easily rotate and descend vertically.

I tried with this possible computer animation.

Source: https://twitter.com/ufoofinterest/status/1459214481431617542

 

[yoshy]

A redditor pointed out the light is in front of the leaves in one video if you pause around 25 seconds. There are actually other frames that show it even better

 

[jarlrmai]

A redditor pointed out the light is in front of the leaves in one video if you pause around 25 seconds. There are actually other frames that show it even better

That's video 1 from the MB post, it's possible that it's due to glare / low light persistence.

it dims a bit and you can see it get partially occluded by the leaves farther on, it would be unusual to do this bit that well and miss other easier bits if you were faking it.

 

[yoshy]

Here's the frame I paused it on

 

[Ravi]

Here's the frame I paused it on

The leaves are out of focus, and optically the rays from an object behind it can still enter the aperture of the camera, and form an image. It is thus possible to "see" an object behind another object, when doing it right (shallowish depth of focus etc).

 

[jarlrmai]

Here's an example from a photo I took, you can see the detail in the birds plumage behind the branch


Source: https://flic.kr/p/2konGXy

 

[TheCholla]

I see my post title has been modified to say "Probably a drone", does it mean the discussion is over here ?

 

[jarlrmai]

I see my post title has been modified to say "Probably a drone", does it mean the discussion is over here ?

No I think it means at the moment the most likely candidate is a drone, best have a word with Mick if you don't agree with the title change.

 

[Mick West]

I see my post title has been modified to say "Probably a drone", does it mean the discussion is over here ?

It means that "drone" is the most likely explanation, for the various reasons given in the thread. There is nothing inconsistent with ti being a drone, and there's nothing that supports any other explanation. Hence it's probably a drone.

If you discover some evidence it's not a drone, then feel free to bring it up.

 

[Mick West]

it dims a bit and you can see it get partially occluded by the leaves farther on, it would be unusual to do this bit that well and miss other easier bits if you were faking it

It's not. It appears behind out of focus and motion-blurred leaves, but it's actually just showing through gaps which you can see when the leaves are in focus and still.

 

[TheCholla]

It's your forum, do as you like. I just think it's a bit premature since the discussion just started, and it orientates people's opinions on it. But yeah among conventional explanations it cannot be anything else than a drone, I agree.

 

[TheCholla]

Can we estimate the altitude it was from what a regular drone size should be ? It has to be high for no sound to be heard, but the higher it is the bigger too.

 

[Shrinker]

My vote is for a drone with something like an Astera Helios - a battery powered light used in the film industry. 55cm long, and app-controlled RGB LEDs plus 'mint' and amber coloured LED bulbs too.

https://astera-led.com/helios/

However drones make a lot of noise and in my estimation, if the light tube is about 0.5m long and appears that big in frame, the noise ought to have been picked up by at least one of the recordings and been obvious to any observers. But I notice none of the videos features lip-sync or anything else to prove the the audio and video were recorded at the same time.

 

[Mick West]

My vote is for a drone with something like an Astera Helios - a battery powered light used in the film industry. 55cm long, and app-controlled RGB LEDs plus 'mint' and amber coloured LED bulbs too.

They are pretty heavy though. I was thinking perhaps a high density light strip running off the drone's own power supply. Like:

16 feet, and you can use little plastic connectors to splice them together - or maybe just fold them with two 45° turns to go back on itself, then overlap 3 or 2 strips on a 1"x36" balsa strip attached to the landing gear.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

It doesn't necessarily have to be a drone. What about a large RC fixed wing model? That's what it looks like to me. A fixed wing model doing turns, rolls and dives.

The model in this video has LEDs all over the place, but the object in the OP videos looks as if it were a model with LEDs in the wings only. The wings "change length" as the model turns.



Usually less noisy than drones. There are RC models with 4, 6, 8 foot wingspans. So something larger and farther away will be quieter still.

The classic how big/how far away in the night sky problem.

Would also explain why a desultory search in the dark of night didn't turn up any operator. The operator of a large RC airplane could be hundreds of yards away even if the model were almost overhead.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

Doing a little research... LED illuminated RC models have a generic name: Night Flyers. You can buy them out of the box. Which should show that it's a pretty common thing. So scattered sightings don't even have to be of the same object.


https://www.robotbirds.co.uk/fun-st...lite-brave-night-flyer-bnf-basic-efl6950.html
This one has a 1.2 meter wingspan, has a "Powerful 480 size brushless [electric] motor" and is "constructed with durable Z-Foam material."

"The hollow-core structure of the Z-Foam material has been filled with white LED lights. Just press the button inside the battery compartment and the entire airframe will brilliantly glow in the dark."

 

[CeruleanBlu]

Being in the RC hobby for decades now, and a follower of the Flite Test channel for the last 11 years, absolutely nothing surprises me about what can be built and flown.

It doesn't matter how big you want it, what shape, what size, what speed it should fly, if you want a UFO made for something like this then these are the guys to do it. Peter Sripol is a wizard when it comes to getting things to fly that shouldn't, and has even gotten himself in trouble with the FAA for building a giant RC airplane that he climbed aboard and flew around while calling it an ultra-lite aircraft.

Here are just two videos of some of their night activities, one from 11 years ago and one from 6 years ago. Technology has advanced a lot since then, and I really can't begin to imagine one of these "UFO videos" that ISN'T something home-built by a bored kid somewhere with the intent to cause the exact reactions these true believers are giving them. It's just another way of trolling for lulz.





If you want to replicate exactly what you see in these OP videos you can commission me, I'll happily build it for you for a price, and then teach you how to fly it. Just meet me at Flite Fest 2022, I'll get Josh and Peter to help out, we'll make a video out of it.

 

[Itsme]

Can you build something that looks like a domino piece?
Because to me the lighted shape looks like a tumbling domino piece, sometimes seen from the side (which is when it looks like a thin line of light).

 

[jarlrmai]

Can you build something that looks like a domino piece?
Because to me the lighted shape looks like a tumbling domino piece, sometimes seen from the side (which is when it looks like a thin line of light).

A drone can move forward and rotate around it's center axis at the same time, this with a light strip attached is what likely gives the tumbling appearance.

 

[Itsme]

You can clearly hear the drones in the drone YouTube videos posted above.

The UFO in all videos of post #1, however, is completely silent. You hear small background noises, people whispering etc. but not a trace of the typical sound that a drone makes in those videos.

It could be far away but then it would be awfully big for a drone (and probably need a bigger, noisier engine as well).