Sighting in Aurons, June 5, 2015

At around 11:15 pm on a Friday evening, a witness and their partner were looking out of their north-facing bathroom window. The sky was clear. They saw several red lights drifting slowly and silently past, heading east. The witness later reported the sighting to the gendarmerie. No other testimony was collected.

The investigation noted that orange balls crossing the sky over a few minutes on a weekend night strongly suggest Thai lanterns, probably released nearby at the end of a private party. Movement from north to east could be consistent with the very light, unstable wind recorded at Salon-de-Provence, about 10 km away (METEOCIEL data). However, because the local wind at the exact time of the sighting was not known, the GEIPAN could not confirm the Thai lantern hypothesis. For lack of a photo and of local wind data, the case was classified C, meaning insufficient information.