Sighting in Gonneville-la-Mallet, July 24, 2013

At midnight, a witness saw more than ten flying objects over about thirty minutes. The objects differed in shape and in the way they behaved. No one else reported the sighting, and GEIPAN collected no other testimony.

The account describes phenomena that seemed spectacular. Because there was only one witness, the investigation considered that the lights may have been fairly faint, such as satellites or shooting stars. Both are very numerous in the sky at that hour and at that time of year, according to the Calsky record, which also lists two fairly striking Iridium satellite flashes. The same day, GEIPAN received a report of a fireball, and many witnesses reported large shooting stars. The period also coincides with the peak of several meteor showers.

The witness gave no precise position in the sky, no direction of travel and no photographs. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as C, for insufficient data. The observation was probably a set of phenomena with different origins.