Sighting in Gardanne, April 13, 2013

A couple was returning home shortly before 1 a.m. when they noticed three orange-white points of light in a clear sky. The lights moved silently, in formation and in a straight line. The passage lasted about three minutes, which gave the witness time to make two videos. No other witness account was collected.

The footage shows each point as a very bright center surrounded by a red-orange halo, the usual look of Thai lanterns. The timing (a weekend night), the straight-line formation and the slow movement point the same way. The wind was highly variable at that hour, so the hypothesis could not be checked by comparing its direction with the path of the lights, but it was light, which fits a fairly long sighting and a slow passage. Weather records from Marignane show a weakening westerly wind at 11 p.m. on 12 April, then a weak, very unstable wind between midnight and 2 a.m., coming from the north at 1 a.m.

The GEIPAN classified the case as B: the lights were probably Thai lanterns passing over.