Sighting in Meythet, April 11, 2015

On an April evening, the witness was at their kitchen window when they noticed three successive light phenomena that puzzled them. The first was a large white flash in the east, about 45° above the horizon. The second was an orange flash, lower in the sky, which moved for about two seconds. The third was a very brief flash lasting half a second.

The investigation noted that the sun had set about twenty minutes earlier, but that several aircraft flying at around 13,000 m in the direction of observation, according to Flightradar24, were still lit by it. A temporary reflection of sunlight off the underside of the wings or the fuselage of one of them can produce a flash like this, while the aircraft itself, too far away, stays invisible to the naked eye. The orange flash matches that of an Iridium satellite seen at low elevation, the reddish colour being caused by the atmosphere. The Calsky data show two Iridium flashes in that direction at very close times: one at 20:46 (magnitude -2.5), the other at 20:55, probably too low to be visible in a mountainous area. The third flash may have come from sunlight reflecting off one of the many satellites visible at that time.

GEIPAN classified the case as B: very probably reflections of sunlight on an aircraft and on satellites.