Sighting in La Madeleine, March 31, 2012
Nord, Hauts-de-France, France
Sighting on March 31, 2012 in La Madeleine (Nord, France). According to GEIPAN, it was most probably a sky lantern (class B).
What happened
At around 9:15 pm, a witness looked towards the north-west and saw several orange points of light moving silently across the sky from north to south. They did not flicker. The sighting ended when the lights gradually went out. A second witness saw part of the phenomenon but did not give a statement.
GEIPAN found that the description has all the characteristics of Thai lanterns drifting past. The direction of travel matched the north-east wind, which was fairly strong that evening (17 to 39 km/h). The orange colour, the duration of the sighting and the number of objects were also consistent. Saturday evening is a time for festivities, when lantern releases are common. GEIPAN did not try to identify who released the lanterns. The case was classified B: probably Thai lanterns.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- March 31, 2012
- Location
- La Madeleine · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- B
- Explanation
- Sky lanterns
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2012-03-08215
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.