The second seminar of the French Space Agency (CNES) CAIPAN 2, held in Toulouse on October 13-14, 2022 with the participation of representatives of the UFO identification body GEIPAN, prepared 25 presentations on various topics, such as witness reliability, methodology and new tools for analyzing photographs. Although most of the participants came from France, there were participants from many other countries such as Norway, Italy, Belgium and Sweden, as well as from the USA (Jacques Vallée, Ted Rowe, Robert Powell and Ron Westrum) and Canada (Jan Wadne) who had come a long way.
Other topics that were discussed concerned how to use satellite imagery to identify UFO sightings submitted by Philippe Ailleris of the AIAA UAPCOI Steering Subcommittee.
Professor Hakan Kayal, from Julius-Maximilian University Würzburg, said his university is the only university in Germany to study UAP: "I think there is a need for UAP research, but we don't have reliable data. Now I think that there has been a paradigm shift," he said, noting that there is no state approach to UAP in Germany.
Commodore Ruben Lyanza, Director of the Center for Aerospace Identification (Argentine Air Force), spoke online from Argentina and showed how the use of powerful image analysis software has helped identify several UFO shootings, such as flight IBERIA 6830 from Santiago on November 11, 2014, taken from a Chilean Navy helicopter.
GEIPAN expert François Luange revealed that McMinnville's famous 1950 photographs were most likely a hoax with a model suspended on a string to a cable.
GEIPAN researcher Laurent Chabin has demonstrated a new tool using a VR helmet to overlay images and drawings that a witness can use when trying to describe what an object looked like and its position in the sky. Shabin also stated that "this helmet should be used in conjunction with a laptop where the view can be programmed to show the night sky at the time of observation and superimpose a drawing from a witness on the view of the sky."
Dr. Jacques Vallee spoke about his recent book (with Paola Leopizzi Harris) Trinity. The most closely guarded secret, where he claims that an unidentified object was discovered by the US military in New Mexico in 1945. Dr. Valle sees a correlation between the crash and the nearby (20 miles) White Sands test site, where the first atom was produced - the bomb was detonated.
A more recent event was presented by Associate Professor Björn Gitle Hauge from University College Ostfold in Norway, who presented the latest finds in the Hessdalen Valley. Hauge showed photographs of the anomalous lights, which he said could not be explained by a misinterpretation of the natural light in the area.
Claes Swan, as another representative from Scandinavia, had the opportunity to give a brief description of how UFO-Sweden has been teaching field researchers in a physics course once a year since 1977.
Gilles Munch, a GEIPAN researcher, showed an experiment that reminded the audience of the American astronomer Percival Lowell (1855–1916) and his observations of "channels" on the surface of the planet Mars around 1900. According to Munsch and others, these structures may have been created in the eye of the observer due to problems with the lens and focus. Munsch's own experiments have shown that some sightings of alleged UFOs through binoculars may have a similarly mundane explanation.
GEIPAN researcher Thibaut Alexander gave a presentation explaining how contrails occur and why planes flying at different altitudes may or may not leave such white (or black, depending on the position of the Sun) trails in the sky. Most of the French researchers made very practical presentations that were helpful to anyone investigating reports of unusual phenomena in the sky.
Edoardo Russo of the Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici (CISU) followed this trail when he talked about mass sightings and how they, if properly documented, can be a useful tool when investigating other individual UFO reports, as well as a GEIPAN expert Dr. Jean-Pierre Rospars used observations of common objects such as satellites or rockets, as well as meteor impacts, to assess the reliability of eyewitnesses.
Ted Rowe, chief executive of NARCAP, discussed new data from the US and how the safety of crews could be compromised when the UAP is reported to be near both civilian and military aircraft. NARCAP is working to get the authorities to recognize this. Rowe said most of the pilots' reports are anecdotal, but some cases are corroborated by radar and eyewitness accounts from other aircraft: "Air safety is an important reason to study UAP."
One of the two speakers who made presentations was Daniel Evans, Assistant Deputy Assistant Administrator for Research, NASA Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Dr. Evans spoke about NASA's upcoming UAP study and how it could lead to a more detailed study later next year: "The work that NASA is doing is open and not classified," he said, trying to show the difference between the space agency's approach , which is purely scientific and concerns flight safety, compared to closed Pentagon research, which is not controlled by the scientific community. Dr. Evans made it clear that the goal of the study is to address aviation safety issues by better understanding UAP: “The focus is on using NASA Earth Observation data and combining it with commercial data and analysis to tell us about UAP. And NASA has a lot of satellites for Earth observation, some of them have excellent resolution.”
The Spanish researcher Vicente-Juan Ballester-Olmos was not present, but his report was presented by the Italian ufologist Edoardo Rosso. Ballester-Olmos concluded that no evidence of alien visitation to Earth has been collected and that ufologists are involved in propagating and perpetuating the myth of such visitations. To continue UFO research, Ballester-Olmos suggested that GEIPAN only investigate close encounters involving at least three observers, and that it should be done by qualified researchers (he called them "UFO non-believers") who do not believe that aliens have visited Earth. He recommended that GEIPAN focus on events that, if they could not be solved, should give science new data.
The two-day conference provided ample time for meetings and discussions during breaks and lunches, and it was all well organised. The poster session helped participants who did not have a seat as a speaker to present their organizations (eg SCEAU, Scientific Coalition for Research UAP and MUFON France) or projects (eg the UFO/IFO statistical study conducted by the Italian CISU Institute). While some of the posters were overloaded with unreadable text, others were informative, with relevant images and easy-to-read information.