Sighting in Ile d'Oleron, January 1, 2010
Charente-Maritime, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
Sighting on January 1, 2010 in Ile d'Oleron (Charente-Maritime, France). GEIPAN identified the phenomenon with certainty: it was a sky lantern (class A).
What happened
Around 8:10 pm on the evening of 1 January 2010, many people saw a luminous phenomenon move across the sky. The gendarmerie passed eight witness statements on to GEIPAN. Two of them, from witnesses who were watching from the mainland and probably saw a lantern, were not linked to the object seen on the island by the other six witnesses.
Soon afterwards, the person who had released the device at Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron came forward to the gendarmerie unprompted. They explained that, between 8:00 and 8:15 pm that same evening, they had launched a "wish balloon", an object traditionally used at parties and birthdays in Holland.
GEIPAN concluded that the sightings on the island were of a Thai lantern passing by, and the case was classified A, meaning identified.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- January 1, 2010
- Location
- Ile d'Oleron · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- A
- Explanation
- Sky lanterns
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2010-01-02529
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.