Sighting in Martigues, January 12, 1982

Two witnesses, lying in bed, looked through the half-open shutters of their bedroom and saw a very strong light several times between about 5:45 and 6:00 a.m. They described it as a white luminous ball surrounded by a green halo, motionless and silent. Each appearance lasted only a few seconds. One witness thought of a lightning flash or a factory flash; the other spoke of a violently lit central point and a light that covered the whole neighbourhood. It was raining. The window faced north-west toward a motorway bridge 150 m away, and the light appeared low in the sky, at roughly 12° elevation. A third witness, known to the GEIPAN only through what the gendarmerie report records, saw a strong, silent, bluish-white half-sphere of light between 7:00 and 7:15 a.m. that lasted two seconds. The report also mentions other sightings on other days, with no precise dates.

The GEIPAN examined two hypotheses. The first was the star Capella, which at that hour lay in the north-west at a similar height and can change colour near the horizon; however, the light described was very intense and the view from the bed was narrow, which makes this less likely without ruling it out. It does not fit the direction given in the third account. The second was ball lightning, judged more likely: the rainy weather, the colours, the halo and the short duration are all consistent with it. The viewing conditions did not allow the witnesses to follow the appearance, evolution and disappearance of the phenomenon, and the third account was second-hand. The case was classified C: lack of reliable information.