Sighting in Marseille, July 31, 1994

Two witnesses saw a red half-sphere at around 1:15 in the morning, just above the hills to the east of the city. Its apparent size was about twice that of the Moon. As they watched, it shrank and turned yellow, then vanished, reduced to a thin streak of light. The witnesses had no explanation for what they had seen.

The case was first classified C because of a lack of information. In July 2012, a reconstitution was carried out at the same place and the same time of night, based on the possibility of a saros cycle, which the investigation report explains in detail. The reconstitution, made 18 years after the event, proved entirely convincing. GEIPAN therefore reclassified the case as A: the witnesses had mistaken the rising Moon for an unknown phenomenon.