Sighting in Lasson, May 3, 2015

A witness saw three very bright, vivid orange balls pass silently across the night sky at around 1:30 in the morning. The witness had time to fetch a camera and film the scene, but was disappointed with how the video turned out and did not send it to GEIPAN. No other witness account was collected.

Orange balls crossing the sky within a few minutes on a weekend night first suggested Thai lanterns, possibly released nearby after a private party. Rain earlier in the late evening had made the air very clear and may have made the lanterns look brighter. The sky was overcast and the witness was standing in complete darkness, which may explain why the lights seemed so vivid. In the video, the brightness stayed low, the balls looked whiter because of the camera's automatic white balance, and their diamond shape matched a blurred, out-of-focus image reproducing the shape of the camera's aperture.

The objects moved from east to west. However, the wind recorded in Caen, 6 km away, was light and blowing from the south, and the terrain cannot account for such a difference in direction over that distance. Since Thai lanterns follow the local wind, GEIPAN could not confirm that hypothesis. The case was classed C because, with no video and no other witness, there was too little information and too few cross-checks.