Sighting in Punaaiua, June 12, 2011

One evening in June, at 6:36 p.m., several people were on the beach of Punaaiua bay in Tahiti when they noticed a luminous phenomenon in the sky. It was a very bright red light moving at high speed. It then came to a stop and vanished by rising vertically into the night. Only one account was submitted to GEIPAN, along with photographs.

The investigation rated the case as moderately strange and well substantiated. In many respects it resembles a Thai lantern. However, because the phenomenon stopped abruptly, this explanation was considered too weak to be adopted, especially since the local wind could be neither determined nor modelled. The case was therefore provisionally classified C (insufficient data), pending further testimony.