Sighting in Avignon, December 11, 1993

At about 8:50 p.m., a driver noticed a very large light spinning on itself in the sky, which then vanished. A little further along the road it reappeared, and the vehicle's two passengers saw it too. After pulling into a car park, the witness pointed it out to another motorist.

According to the witness, the light kept spinning on itself, without any sound, for about twenty minutes. Between 6 and 10 other lights were seen below it. The phenomenon appeared and disappeared, and moved forward while whirling in every direction. Only one witness reported the sighting to the gendarmerie.

GEIPAN re-examined this case, originally classified D. The description matches a laser animation projected from the ground and reflected in the atmosphere by moisture droplets or the cloud layer: luminous patterns of often changing geometry, rotations, sweeping movements and large, rapid excursions across the sky. Such animations were rarer in 1993. It is now impossible to look for the source at the site or near Avignon. However, on the same day, another investigation in a very different place had found such an animation and showed that this equipment was being sold to nightclubs in France. The case is classified B: a probable, though not certain, sighting of a laser or "Sky Rose", since the installation could not be identified nor the weather conditions confirmed as suitable.