Sighting in Biscarrosse, August 7, 2021

The witness was going to bed around 11 p.m. when a glow caught their eye through a roof window. They described a pale star, dim but easy to make out, that seemed fairly close. It moved erratically, like a fly, within a specific area of the sky, which the witness estimated as a sphere about 500 metres across. Its changes of direction were sharp; its speed was not astronomical, but it was still fast.

The witness watched it with the naked eye and with binoculars from 11 p.m. until 12:30 a.m., when they went to bed while the light was still active. They filmed it, but the video cannot be used: the device was probably not suited to night vision, and a lit white porch close by prevented focusing on distant objects and reduced the incoming light, making the glow imperceptible. Another person present saw the phenomenon but did not give a statement.

GEIPAN linked the account to a skyrose (a searchlight of the kind used by nightclubs): a summer Saturday evening in a tourist area, erratic movements within a limited zone of sky, rapid changes of direction, and a long duration. Between 11 p.m. and midnight, the Biscarrosse weather station recorded two low cloud layers, 3 to 4 oktas at about 780–870 m and 3 to 5 oktas at about 1,140–1,380 m, conditions favourable to this phenomenon. Visibility of 20 km probably explains why the witness could not see the beam rising from the ground. The tourist office reported no official event using a skyrose that night. Several nightclubs are located in the area: only one could be reached, and its skyrose has been inactive for three years, while the others could not be contacted. As the source could not be identified with certainty, the case is classed B: misidentification of a skyrose.