Sighting in Blangy-le-Château, January 7, 2013
Calvados, Normandie, France
Sighting from an aircraft on January 7, 2013 in Blangy-le-Château (Calvados, France). GEIPAN considers the phenomenon probably identified (class B).
What happened
The pilot of an Airbus A340 reported seeing what they believed was space debris re-entering the atmosphere. According to the report, the sighting took place at about 22:46 UTC, shortly before midnight local time, while the aircraft was flying over the area around Deauville. The pilot later submitted a report on the luminous phenomenon.
GEIPAN linked this account to an observation made the same day in the Ardèche, at the Col de l'Escrinet. Other accounts of the same kind appeared in the press in January 2013.
Based on all these accounts, the investigation concluded that the phenomenon was very probably the atmospheric re-entry of a piece of satellite debris, possibly from the Iridium 33 satellite. The case was classified B: probable observation of an atmospheric re-entry.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- January 7, 2013
- Location
- Blangy-le-Château · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From an aircraft
- Source classification
- B
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2013-01-08384
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.