Sighting in Inzinzac-Lochrist, July 9, 2016

At around 10:45 pm, a witness and their spouse watched for about three minutes as a circular orange object moved silently beneath the cloud ceiling. After changing direction, the object turned cylindrical and black. The couple looked at it first with the naked eye, then through binoculars. Only one witness account was collected during the investigation.

GEIPAN concluded that this was probably a Chinese lantern, of the kind often called a Thai lantern. Its colour, appearance and manner of movement fit, and its path agreed with the prevailing wind, which blew toward the northeast according to the reading at Sénébret, 9 km away. The bright light of a lantern that is going out can also give way to the dark colour of its body. Seen from close by, the lantern looked like an orange disc; seen later from the side, it had the shape of a vertical cylinder, dark because it had gone out. The uneven glows inside the ball or disc, especially through binoculars, are also typical of a lantern. The case was therefore classed B.