It’s a subject that hit the headlines in the 1970s. The appearances of unidentified flying objects (or UFOs) seem to be increasing at an alarming speed. Just look at the headlines to be convinced: “UFOs in the sky of Perpignan”; “Mysterious traces in a Jura meadow”; “Tulle: UFOs seen by schoolchildren”. Relayed by the media, these testimonies ignite the imagination. Are these Soviet spy planes? A new kind of bomber? Creatures from elsewhere?
To shed light on the strange phenomena they are confronted with, ordinary French men and women take over television sets, group together in associations of amateur ufologists, and publish their testimonies in books. A few years after the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 21, 1969), the world still has its head in the stars.
At the same time, the culture of secrecy which weighed on the Cold War maintained a climate of distrust towards established institutions. Perhaps to temper the media outpouring, the French state officially intervened on 1er May 1977 by founding the Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena, or Gepan (today Geipan with “information” added to the name), placed under the supervision of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES). Its mission: to collect and analyze unidentified aerospace phenomena (or UAP). A world first.
France at the initiative
If UFOs are no longer part of national priorities today, they were of interest to the highest authorities in the country at the time. In February 1974, the Minister of the Armed Forces Robert Galley conceded that he “We must adopt an extremely open-minded attitude towards these phenomena”interviewed by Jean-Claude Bourret in the show “Pas de panic” on France Inter.
“It was the vision of the Ministry of Defense that we had to have an official wordunderlines Frédéric Courtade, director of Geipan since January 2024. This proposal found a favorable response from the president of CNES, who gave scientific backing to the organization.” In this spirit of rigor, we prefer to talk about UAP rather than UFOs. “In common parlance, we ended up associating the term with little green mensmiles Frédéric Courtade. But it’s not just aliens behind UFOs.”
Based in Toulouse, Gepan intends from its creation to adopt a rigorous approach, surrounding itself with a scientific committee with experts from all walks of life – notably Hubert Curien, the father of the Ariane rocket project – and local partners such as the national gendarmerie, civil aviation, the air force and Météo-France services. Without forgetting numerous volunteer investigators who go to the scene, take photographs, take samples, interview witnesses, etc.
Once the clues have been gathered, the cases treated are classified into four categories ranging from A to D: A for cases explained by scientific evidence, D for those which remain unexplained. “The D cases were the most worthy of interest, because they are those with the highest degree of strangeness”indicates Frédéric Courtade.
3% of cases without response
At the time, D cases concerned around 15 to 20% of the files handled by Gepan. Since then, its methodology has been refined and professionalized. Thanks to the collaboration of psychologists from the CNRS and the University of Toulouse, it was enriched with a psychosocial dimension which aims to identify the cognitive biases which would lead witnesses to an erroneous narration of their memories. Its committee of experts, made up of luminaries from the aerospace world, but also psychologists and sociologists, meets two to three times a year to discuss unexplained cases. “Today we still have 102 unidentified cases, or a little more than 3% of the total”figure Frédéric Courtade.
Of course, there remain some confusing files in the organization’s archives. The Cussac meeting (in 1967, in Cantal) or the Trans-en-Provence affair (in 1981, in Var) still fuel UFO conversations and conferences throughout the world today.
The phenomena which seem to transcend the elementary rules of physics – hypersonic speeds, sudden volatilization of objects, movements without noise or radar traces – are those which intrigue researchers the most… With all due respect to amateur ufologists, however, most of the “ anomalies ” generally find a rational explanation: disintegration of space debris, optical illusions, the passage of a satellite or a lost Asian lantern…
In 1988, Gepan was replaced by the Atmospheric Reentry Phenomena Expertise Service (Sepra). Then in 2005, Geipan took over, adding the letter “I” to its original acronym to affirm its information and awareness mission. However, its official character regularly earns it the distrust of the general public.
“As the work of the State is much denigrated, the Geipan also pays the price”sighs Frédéric Courtade. To avoid being criticized for its opacity, the structure decided in 2008 to make its surveys – previously anonymized – public on its website. An unexpected success. “In a few hours, the site crashed due to the number of connections”exclaims the director of Geipan. Today, the dedicated French organization receives around 800 reports per year.
