Sighting in Loupian, September 28, 2015

A witness was outdoors early in the morning, at 5:26 a.m., when they saw a red triangular shape pass silently for about five seconds. Its three rounded ends were bright red, and the object itself was dimmer than those points of light. It moved in a straight line, parallel to the horizon, then vanished instantly into the deep sky. Only one person reported the sighting.

The investigation considered that the triangular shape might be a perceptual illusion, a contour illusion, with only the three lights being real. A Calsky check showed two satellites visible on the north-east horizon, where the witness was looking: USA 16/NOSS 1-7A and Lacrosse 5 Rocket. A third, NOSS 6 (D), follows the same track but passed ten minutes later. The sighting therefore cannot be directly matched to these satellites, unless the Calsky modelling is imprecise. The red colour would be surprising, but it is plausible at low elevation because of the thickness of atmosphere crossed. Thai lanterns drifting south on a light north wind (Météociel) were also suggested, but a Monday morning at that hour makes this hypothesis a poor fit.

With no information available to confirm or rule out these explanations, the GEIPAN classed the phenomenon, judged not very strange, as category C (insufficient data).