Sighting in Kinshasa, April 10, 2023

During the night, the pilot of a long-haul flight bound for Paris noticed points of light that moved in a fairly erratic way. Their brightness varied, and periods of stillness alternated with "sudden movements" at a speed that could be "that of a satellite". The observation began around 01:30 UTC and lasted until about 02:15 UTC, while the aircraft was flying over the Mediterranean.

Brightness peaked at the start, at about the level of Venus, mainly for two "objects" that seemed to circle each other while staying at the same azimuth relative to the aircraft. Their brightness then dropped until they vanished. They reappeared one to two minutes later and moved along non-straight paths, much as before. Four or five other objects behaved the same way, but they were far fainter, similar to the surrounding stars.

The investigation first considered military aircraft manoeuvres over the Mediterranean, which could not be confirmed. It then looked at the possibility of satellites lit by the Sun. The phenomenon was about 45° above the Sun's position, and the Sun stayed between 30 and 45° below the horizon throughout the observation. These conditions were favourable for seeing Starlink satellites in their operational orbit, made briefly visible by sunlight reflecting off their bodies. The witness, who was very cooperative, saw the phenomenon again on another flight under the conditions predicted by GEIPAN, which confirmed the hypothesis. The case was classified A: flashes from Starlink satellites. It closely resembles three other cases involving flight crews that GEIPAN has investigated.