Sighting in Bordeaux, October 7, 2013

At around 6:30 pm, a motorist driving on the A 63 motorway noticed a white point in the sky whose movement caught their attention. It moved away toward the south and vanished, then seemed to climb back toward the north. The witness saw no coloured flashing that would have indicated an aircraft.

The investigation noted that at that hour the setting sun stood at an azimuth of 251° and a height of 9° 55'. It therefore lit aircraft from the side, and their wings, lit neither from above nor from below, looked invisible. Aircraft flying below roughly 7,000 m leave no condensation trails. According to Flightradar24, many flights used this route, most of them above 10,000 m but some at lower altitudes. At 6:52 pm (civil time), two aircraft crossed paths in the area of the sighting.

GEIPAN classified the case as B: the witness probably saw two aircraft flying at a medium altitude and lit by the setting sun.