Sighting in Melun, December 31, 2009
Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France
Sighting on December 31, 2009 in Melun (Seine-et-Marne, France). According to GEIPAN, it was most probably a sky lantern (class B).
What happened
Around midnight on New Year's Eve, two groups of people looked up at the sky and saw lights moving before they quickly vanished. One of the witnesses, puzzled by what they had seen, contacted the GEIPAN after coming back from vacation, and also gave a statement to the gendarmerie.
In the GEIPAN questionnaire, this witness described the features of the objects that all the observers had seen. These features match those of Thai lanterns, which are released during celebrations. The GEIPAN therefore classified the case as B: a probable sighting of flying lanterns.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- December 31, 2009
- Location
- Melun · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- B
- Explanation
- Sky lanterns
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2009-12-02523
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.