Sighting in Sacy-le-Petit, August 10, 2023

The main witness was in a friend's garden with their spouse and their child. Sometime between 4:20 pm and 5:30 pm (the exact time could not be determined), all three saw a well-defined white disc crossing the sky at high speed. It followed a straight path from the zenith down to the horizon, where it disappeared after about 7 seconds. It left no trail, and the witness heard no sound. Clouds intermittently hid the object, so the observation was not continuous.

The investigation considered two possibilities: an airliner or a bolide, meaning a natural solid body from space entering the atmosphere. An airliner was in service at the time, but the object's apparent speed and the lack of a trail make that explanation unlikely. The description fits a daytime bolide better: a very short duration, a very high apparent speed, and a high altitude, since clouds hid it at times. White is a commonly reported colour. The round shape is fairly consistent, although witnesses more often describe an elongated one. A missing trail is not unusual in daylight, because the brightness of the day makes it hard to see, especially when the bolide has little mass as it enters the atmosphere. No matching bolide appears in the databases of the American Meteor Society or the FRIPON programme, which is not surprising for a daytime sighting under even partial cloud cover. With no other testimony and an imprecise time, further investigation was difficult. GEIPAN classified the case as B: a probable daytime bolide.