Sighting in Eygalières, October 24, 2015

On a Saturday evening, around 8:30 pm, several people watched a large number of reddish lights drift slowly across the sky, one behind the other. They first appeared low on the horizon toward Mollèges, then eventually vanished overhead, between Saint-Sixte and Le Contras. The witness took photos and videos. People they phoned also saw the lights. GEIPAN collected two witness accounts.

The investigation found that this sight, on a weekend evening, strongly suggested Thai lanterns, most likely released nearby at the end of a private party. The motion observed was a rise in angular elevation along a north-northwest axis, which could mean movement toward the witnesses, a vertical ascent, or both. Weather records from Salon, Marignane and Avignon showed a weak, highly unstable wind, so its direction at the exact place and time of the sighting could not be determined. Two photos were analysed. They show strikingly sharp points of light, white in one and coloured in the other, in exactly the same position in the frame. These two features are typical of "dead pixels" or "hot pixels", common defects in digital cameras that only show up in night photos. The pictures therefore add nothing, except that the phenomena were not very bright.

Since the witnesses' account fit Thai lanterns in every respect, GEIPAN classified the case B (probable Thai lanterns), even though the local wind data could not confirm the hypothesis.