Sighting in Écardenville-la-Campagne, April 18, 2019

At about 9:17 p.m., the witness was in their garden when a round, fire-red object topped with a grey dome passed very close by, above the trees. It made no sound. The witness fetched a mobile phone and tried to take a few photos and a video, but the video was too short. The object quickly moved off toward the southwest. The sighting lasted only about a minute, and only one witness account was collected.

GEIPAN considered the testimony consistent. The photos, of rather poor quality, helped establish the location as well as the azimuths and elevations of the phenomenon, but they do not allow a formal identification. Several features match a sky lantern (also called a Thai or Chinese lantern): a path from the northwest toward the southwest and a speed similar to the wind's, an orange colour, the look of fire seen from below, and a round shape. The only real oddity was the "grey dome", but GEIPAN had already dealt with this description in another lantern case. Weather station records show a high average wind speed, with gusts, which accounts for the fast movement. Image processing with the IPACO software strengthens the lantern hypothesis. The lantern was probably released from one of the nearby houses, but the investigation, carried out remotely, could not trace whoever launched it. The case is classified A: observation of a sky lantern.