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fully understand a witness's narrative account, we had to evaluate not only the stated report but also the personality and state-of-mind of the witness, the physical environment in which the event occurred, and the witness's psychosocial environment. GEPAN created a database, unique in the world, of all the cases of sightings of aerospace phenomena recorded by the French authorities since 1951, allowing for statistical analysis. A classification was adopted that places the UAP (unidentified aerospace phenomena) in four categories: Type A: The phenomenon is fully and unambiguously identified. Type B: The nature of the phenomenon has probably been identified but some doubt remains. Type C: The phenomenon cannot be identified or classified due to insufficient data. Type D: The phenomenon cannot be explained despite precise witness accounts and good-quality evidence recovered from the scene. In Type D_ cases, those which remain unexplained, a which remain unexplained, a lose Encounters" In Type D : cases, those which remain unexplained, a subcategorization was also adopted using the "Close Encounters" classification established by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, based on the sighting cases, is also the "Close was distance and the effects generated by the phenomenon. These on-the-spot investigations, carried out at the request of the police or the civil and military aviation authorities, followed by scientific analysis, made it possible to confirm the existence of rare physical phenomena, classified as unexplained UAP, that do not conform to any known natural or artificial phenomena. The statistical analyses and the surveys carried out since the creation of the GEPAN make this even ean) m nm 1 1 1 clearer. The Type D category contained more cases during some unusual periods, called "waves," like the wave of 1954, when nearly 40 percent of the cases in the database belong to this last category. GEPAN initiated several lines of research involving other GEPAN initiated several lines research involving 4 . other occurring, which allowed for comparison with additional files and databases. We worked on developing improved detection systems, such as image analysis of photographs and video footage. In 1988, GEPAN became a new agency called SEPRA [4] in order to broaden the mission to include the investigation of all reentry phenomena, including debris from satellites, launches, etc. When an unidentified object left traces or any kind of marked effect 0 on the environment that could be 14 a4 e 1, a recorded and measured by sensors or instruments, we referred to them as UFOs. Among the physical trace ground cases that have been thoroughly investigated, three have stood up to a rigorous analysis and could not be categorized as involving known objects. In November 1979, a woman called the gendarmes to say a flying saucer had just landed in front of her house. The gendarmes went to the reported landing site immediately, and GEPAN came also with a multidisciplinary team of investigators. Another witness provided an site laboratories and consultants in countries where similar events were with additional files and came also with a