Sighting in Montauban, September 9, 2011

At around 10:10 p.m., several people in the same neighbourhood saw a fast, silent luminous phenomenon cross the sky from south to north. The GEIPAN received two independent accounts. The sighting was brief: between 5 and 30 seconds according to the reports, and between 7 and 30 seconds according to another passage of the investigation report. The witnesses described a shape like a "drop of water" or a "white bean" that moved quickly and lit up nothing around it. No sound was heard, and the object seemed to shrink gradually.

The investigation first looked at Thai lanterns, or a link with the 400 coups festival held in the city that day. Both witnesses completely rejected these explanations. A further analysis then linked the sighting to the atmospheric re-entry of a meteoroid or of satellite debris. The GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable observation of a bolide.