Sighting in Cayenne, August 26, 1998

Shortly after half past midnight, the crew of a DC10 flying over the Atlantic Ocean saw six very fast-moving points of light pass by for about ten seconds. The points shone with a very intense glow and left a long luminous trail behind them. Their path was horizontal and straight. The witnesses described them as white.

Only the captain wrote a report, two days later, and it was later passed on to SEPRA. Four of the five witnesses nevertheless drew a sketch of the phenomenon, attached to the report. The captain's account is detailed, particularly regarding the starting and ending positions of the points, their appearance and their magnitude. Statements from the other crew members are missing. There is no photo or video, which is common for such a short duration.

GEIPAN re-examined this case, first classified D, and reclassified it B: it was probably the atmospheric re-entry of a fireball that had broken up into a meteoric procession. The horizontal path suggests an earthgrazing fireball, but the available data cannot show whether it crossed the atmosphere or bounced off it. The duration, magnitude and portion of sky crossed link this case to a similar event in October 1990. In the middle of the Atlantic, far from detection stations and observers, probably nobody else saw it, which would explain why it drew no attention at the time.