Sighting in Agde, June 13, 2011

A driver and their passengers noticed a bluish, oval, luminous shape in the sky that appeared to sit on the cloud ceiling. It moved quickly and erratically, changing direction and height, and gave the impression of a huge flashlight. The sighting took place around 2:00 a.m. during a long, festive weekend and lasted about 30 minutes. Only one report reached GEIPAN.

GEIPAN considered that these features (a blue patch on the clouds, random movements, the duration, the time and the setting) pointed to a light show from one of the many nightclubs in the Agde–Béziers area. Moving spots on a cloud ceiling like this are a frequent source of misidentification, and depending on the weather the beams may not be visible. Tracking down the specific club would have added nothing, since the sighting had little strangeness and most of its characteristics matched a known phenomenon. The case was classified B: a probable sighting of a nightclub light show.