Sighting in Balma, August 3, 2016

At 23:06, a witness and their partner watched two sunflower-yellow glowing objects drift slowly and silently across the sky, one behind the other. One of them took a photograph with a camera. The objects moved away toward the south, then went out, leaving only a red dot visible. When the photo was transferred to a computer, the couple were intrigued by what it showed. Only one account was collected.

GEIPAN noted that the witness went through two strange experiences: the objects seen in the sky, and then, even more unsettling, the picture. The visual sighting matched a flight of Thai lanterns: the color, the path (the wind recorded that evening came from 300°, while the witness placed the objects' arrival at 330°), the way they finally went out, an occasionally cylindrical look, and the summer season. The luminous streaks around the object in the photo were a photographic artifact. The camera was fully on automatic, with the flash on and a one-second exposure. The flash stopped very quickly, but the shutter stayed open for the bright elements, such as the lantern. Believing the shot was over, the photographer moved the camera, which traced zigzags of light, while the tree branches, frozen at the moment the flash ended, stayed sharp.

The case shows how misleading Thai lanterns can be, especially in photographs, and how surprise can set off a chain of mistaken interpretations: the camera freezing and an error in the date were attributed to the strange phenomenon. The origin was a Thai lantern, but since the strangeness the witness felt stemmed mainly from the photograph, GEIPAN classified the case as A: photographic artifact.