Sighting in Le Tampon, October 1, 2012

At 7:35 p.m., several people saw a white ball with a white trail cross the sky quickly. It seemed to be heading down toward the ocean. Very soon after it passed, a general power cut occurred. Only one witness account was collected during the investigation.

GEIPAN found that every feature of the sighting matched a bolide (a very bright meteor). The witness had found the experience strange because they linked the ball to the blackout, but this was only a coincidence: power cuts are not unusual on the island, and EDF had in fact scheduled some for that same week. The bolide could not be confirmed from detection records, which are never exhaustive, especially away from the continent, but it remained the most likely explanation. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as B: bolide.