At 5 p.m. on January 8, 1981, Renato Nicolaï, a 55-year-old farmer, was working on his land outside Trans-en-Provence when he heard a whistling sound. He saw a lead-grey craft about 2.5 metres across, shaped like two saucers rim to rim, land about 50 metres away.
He said it rose again almost at once and flew off to the north-east over the trees, leaving circular burn marks where it had sat.
Nicolaï told the gendarmerie the next day. They photographed the site and took soil and plant samples, which went to GEPAN, the French government's UFO study office. GEPAN reported that the ground had been compressed and heated and that the plants showed changes, and called it one of its strongest cases. Skeptics have argued the marks could have come from a vehicle.