Sighting in Breuil-Magné, July 28, 2024

In the evening, from their apartment, the witness saw a glowing ball surrounded by a faint halo. They estimated it was about 300 metres up and between 500 metres and 1 kilometre away. The object crossed the sky fairly quickly on a horizontal path, making no audible sound. The witness filmed it on their mobile phone, using a slight zoom.

As it moved, the object gradually dimmed and gave off black smoke. It eventually went completely dark while keeping to the same path, then vanished behind the rooftops of the houses to the witness's right.

GEIPAN rated the case as having low strangeness and good consistency: there was only one witness, but a video of the phenomenon existed. The description matched a sky lantern perfectly. Its burner typically goes out after a few minutes of flight, which causes a change in colour from yellow to black and a little smoke. The apparent trajectory was also consistent with the wind direction recorded at the time. The investigation could not establish where the lantern had been released. The case is classified A: a sky lantern carried by the wind.