Sighting in Cuxac-d'Aude, August 12, 2023

A family of four was on the terrace of their home at 22:18 when a bright object crossed the sky. They had been watching the sky hoping to see shooting stars. Only one of the four wrote to the GEIPAN, sending a registered letter with photos and annotated drawings to show where the sighting took place.

According to this witness, the object looked like a ladder: two perfectly parallel, identical uprights joined by rungs at right angles and closed off at the top and bottom, giving six or seven neatly fitted rectangles, with no difference in thickness between uprights and rungs. It was a uniform bright orange, moved along its length and crossed the whole sky in about twenty seconds without a sound. Three people close to the witness confirmed the sighting during the investigation, and the GEIPAN rated the consistency of the testimony as good.

The witness stated that the object looked nothing like the online images of Starlink. However, a train of 22 Starlink satellites had been launched the day before and was passing through the observation area at 22:14. The ladder shape came from how the witness perceived the train. The other witnesses contacted described it in a more conventional way. Many other people saw it that evening too, during the Perseid meteor shower, and some took photos. The GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of a Starlink satellite train.