Sighting in La Réunion, August 15, 1997

Around 5 a.m., a street vendor on their round noticed a stationary light, which they estimated to be about forty metres above the ground. They then felt that it was following them along the road, and they became frightened. On reaching their sister's home, they woke the whole family, and everyone looked at the sky toward Salazie, to the west. The witness first described a shape "almost like a turtle" with two headlights. Their sister saw only a very bright light surrounded by rays, whose intensity varied and which sometimes shifted to the right or left. The witness left at 5:50 without having seen the object move. The others stayed until it vanished suddenly behind a cliff. The sister added that on later days, in fine weather, she saw a light every evening around 6:30 p.m. in the same spot, very high in the sky, with small coloured points seeming to leave it toward the sea.

The file, first classified D, was re-examined. GEIPAN concluded that the witnesses had mistaken Jupiter, which is very bright and lies in the same part of the sky as Venus at 6:30 p.m. The evening light was Venus. The impression of being followed is a classic illusion when a distant star is watched from a moving vehicle. The small movements come from the autokinetic effect. Thin cloud, optical distortion from a windscreen or glasses, and fear may have produced the shape and the headlights. The case is classified A.