Sighting in Biarritz, August 12, 2013

At 12:08 a.m., a whole family watched three very bright balls moving silently. The first two initially followed a straight path, then climbed into the clear sky. The third moved above the houses and changed color. All three phenomena vanished at the same moment.

GEIPAN concluded that these slow-moving orange or colored balls of light clearly matched Thai lanterns. The weather record showed a light, variable wind, mostly from the southwest at the time of the sighting, which fits the overall drift toward the east. The irregular movement is not surprising with a weak wind in an urban seaside area, where air currents of urban, thermal and marine origin interact in complex ways. A video that was posted on YouTube for a while was fully consistent with this hypothesis. The tourist location, the summer season and the hour are all well suited to lantern releases during festivities. The witness was not convinced by this explanation. GEIPAN classified the case "A": sighting of Thai lanterns.