Sighting in Lot, January 24, 1985

During the night, two witnesses were first startled by two flashes in quick succession, followed by clicking sounds and then a sudden, intense, brief burst of light. Above their house, they then noticed a milky-colored object shaped and sized like a rugby ball, moving slowly and silently, surrounded by a whitish halo. About three minutes later, these witnesses and other people heard detonations. No power cut was noticed in the house.

The gendarmerie report recorded statements from people living under the same roof or nearby. A call for witnesses in the local press also brought forward about ten people in neighboring districts who said they had seen the same thing at the same time; their accounts were not recorded by the gendarmerie.

The case, first classified D, was re-examined. GEIPAN found in it the typical features of a meteoroid re-entry: a bright light at night illuminating a wide area, an elongated oval glow with a halo crossing the sky, detonations coming afterwards, and many witnesses over a large area. The flashes and the longer period of illumination match moments of extreme brightness during re-entry; by the time the object entered the witnesses' field of view, its brightness had dropped. Because the detonations originate at high altitude, they can reach the ground several minutes after the light. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as A: a very probable meteoroid re-entry.