On January 8, 1981, a UFO incident occurred in the small town of Trans-en-Provence in southern France, an event that even the French government had to take seriously. Farmer Renato Nicolaï witnessed a flying object landing on his farm, and the French government’s UFO investigation agency GEPAN (later renamed SEPRA) officially opened a case, conducting scientific analysis over many years.

📍 Location	📅 Date	🔍 Category
Trans-en-Provence, Var, France	1981-01-08	Close Encounter / Physical Trace

Renato Nicolaï was working on his farm when he suddenly heard a sharp “hissing sound.” He looked up and saw a silver disc-shaped object, about 2.5 meters in diameter, slowly descending horizontally to a vineyard about 50 meters away. He described the object as having no windows, doors, or propulsion system—just a perfectly smooth metal disc.

The object remained for about 30 to 40 seconds, then rose vertically and flew off at extremely high speed toward the northeast, making no engine noise throughout. Nicolaï approached the spot where the object had been and found clear burn marks on the concrete slab and soil, along with a ring-shaped mark about 2.4 meters in diameter.

He immediately notified the local Gendarmerie. The Gendarmerie carefully recorded his statement and then reported the case to GEPAN, the UFO investigation agency of the French National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research (ONERA).

GEPAN conducted an extremely detailed on-site investigation. They collected soil, water, and plant samples, including alfalfa leaves from around the trace area. Dr. Michel Bounias, a plant physiologist at ONERA, analyzed the samples. The results were quite astonishing—the alfalfa leaves within the trace area showed significant abnormal growth changes: chlorophyll content dropped substantially, and the plants’ aging process appeared to have been accelerated.

Soil analysis of the farmland also revealed that the soil in the trace area had been heated to a high temperature “exceeding 600°C.” However, strangely enough, a contact lasting only 30 seconds theoretically could not have heated the ground to such a temperature, unless the object carried a powerful energy field.

GEPAN’s final conclusion was: “No atmospheric phenomenon or man-made device can explain the observed effects.” This conclusion came from an official French agency, lending this case a high degree of authority.

📚 Sources

• GEPAN (Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés), Technical Report No. 16 (1981), CNES
• Bounias, M. “Biological Effects of UFO Landing Traces” (1983), Journal of Scientific Exploration
• Vallee, J. “Confrontations: A Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact” (1990), Ballantine Books