Sighting in Pia, July 11, 2024

Two witnesses, a man and his wife, were in the garden at the back of a holiday house at about 11:30 p.m. when they noticed something in the night sky. They could not explain what they saw. They described three white luminous spheres forming a triangle. The triangle kept its shape throughout the movement, which was fairly fast. Near the end, two of the lights swapped positions. Then everything went out at once, after roughly ten seconds of observation.

GEIPAN rated the consistency of the case as medium: there is no photo or video, and several answers in the witness questionnaire had been changed. However, the witness answered all of the investigator's requests, agreed to a size-estimation exercise and provided a sketch of how the sighting unfolded.

Several hypotheses were examined. Birds lit by urban lights and laser skytracers were ruled out because the lights the witness perceived were too intense. An aircraft identified on the CAPCODA map, whose path could have matched, was dismissed because the real size estimated by the witness did not fit the distance to the plane. The hypothesis of three festive lanterns was judged probable: several lights moved in the same direction, changed places and vanished suddenly, and a local micro-current of wind could explain the direction. A local festival took place that day, but a lantern release could not be confirmed. Such releases have been banned without prefectural authorization in the Pyrénées-Orientales since 2008, which makes it hard to find anyone who will admit to them. The case was classified B: probable sighting of Thai lanterns.