Sighting in Los Angeles, December 16, 2025

A member of the flight crew, seated in the cockpit of an aircraft flying from Los Angeles to Paris, saw a luminous phenomenon to the right of the plane. The aircraft was at flight level FL350 over the North Atlantic, south of Greenland, flying at night in VMC conditions. The phenomenon first looked like a white point of light, similar to a satellite, moving along a straight, slightly descending path from azimuth 120° toward azimuth 90°. After a few dozen seconds, the point suddenly turned into an intense white light, described as a motionless "explosion", with no sound. It then gave way to a diffuse pink-violet patch that gradually spread out before disappearing. The whole sequence lasted about three minutes. A second witness in the cockpit confirmed the sighting.

The account came from an observer experienced in aviation. It was submitted the next day through a detailed technical questionnaire and later supplemented by a cognitive interview. Only one questionnaire was formally completed. There was no instrumental recording and no reconstruction.

The investigation confirmed the flight conditions of the aircraft. Astronomical analysis ruled out the Moon and the bright stars. A satellite was indeed in the area, but its ascending path did not match what was seen, and it could not account for the "explosion" or the colored halo. However, an Atlas V 551 rocket had lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 08:28 UTC, 22 minutes before the sighting. At 08:50 UTC, its Centaur stage was at main engine cutoff (MECO-1), followed by a regulation venting of gas. The moving point was the stage in flight, the apparent "explosion" was the venting, and the halo was the gas cloud lit by the Sun, which was at azimuth 92° but 26° below the horizon. GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of the second Centaur stage of the Atlas V 551 rocket.