Sighting in Rentree Atmospherique, February 18, 2011

Several witnesses, positioned at fairly distant locations from one another, saw a bright phenomenon cross the sky at high speed. The sightings took place in the Bouches-du-Rhône area of south-eastern France and on the RN 568 road between Arles and Fos-sur-Mer. Another account came from a helicopter in flight above a Pyrénées 2000 resort. All described a fireball following a descending path, with a fast angular motion.

GEIPAN noted that these descriptions matched the shape, trajectory and movement typical of a meteoroid or piece of space debris re-entering the atmosphere. Other reports, collected outside GEIPAN at fairly distant places, agreed on the appearance of the phenomenon, its general north-to-south direction and above all the time. This comparison makes an atmospheric re-entry highly probable, one that could be seen from far away because it occurred at high altitude, between 50 and 150 km. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as B: probable atmospheric re-entry.