Sighting in Contay, January 5, 2018

At 10:35 pm, the witness was on the phone at home when they saw, through the living-room windows, two round orange lights moving across a clear sky from west to east. They went upstairs and took binoculars to get a better look. The observation lasted 90 seconds in total. The witness compared the objects to two round, orange shunting-yard gas lamps. No other testimony was collected.

The GEIPAN considered the case to have low strangeness and low consistency, since there was only one witness and no photograph. The description is entirely typical of a mistaken identification of Thai lanterns. The path followed the direction of the wind, and the wind speed would account for the short duration of the sighting. Whoever may have released the lanterns could not be found.

The witness rejected this explanation, most likely because they had overestimated the distance to the objects. It is impossible to judge visually how far away an object is in the open sky, especially at night and when the object is unfamiliar. The witness very probably estimated the distance using their own aeronautical references, taking the objects to be the size of aircraft, whereas Thai lanterns are much smaller. The case was classed B: probable misidentification of two Thai lanterns.