Sighting in Joué-lès-Tours, July 31, 2025

At around 10:30 pm, a witness saw a bright, bluish light for a few seconds. It moved quickly and seemed to be at a very high altitude. It lay toward the west-southwest, a direction confirmed by a reconstruction photo the witness sent in. According to the description, the light first rose, stopped briefly, then turned through a right angle before vanishing.

GEIPAN rated the case's strangeness and consistency as medium: there was only one witness, and no photo or other evidence supported the account. Even so, the description fits a fireball well: a point of light, a possibly bluish colour, strong brightness, a very high apparent speed and a duration of a few seconds. With no other testimony, the phenomenon's exact location could not be determined. A search of the FRIPON network database showed several detections during the evening, notably around 20:30 UTC, which is 10:30 pm local time, but no direct recording of what the witness saw.

The investigation explained the apparent change of direction as an illusion occurring as the fireball disappeared, caused by a brief retinal afterimage combined with a slight movement of the witness's gaze. GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable observation of the atmospheric re-entry of a fireball.