Sighting in Saint-Clair-du-Rhône, May 14, 2022

At about 11:50 p.m., the witness was out walking on the street in front of their home when they noticed a fairly large reddish-orange point of light surrounded by a halo in the sky. They estimated its magnitude at -6. The object stayed motionless for about 30 seconds, then dropped straight down, moved toward the south and rose vertically again. It then sped up and shot off to the south, toward the Saint-Alban nuclear power plant (Saint-Maurice-l'Exil), until houses hid it from view. No sound was heard.

The sighting lasted about 10 minutes. The object covered a path of roughly 120° across the sky, starting at an elevation of 25° to 30° and gradually dropping to 20° by the time the witness lost sight of it. The witness made a reconstruction on a photograph, but no photos or videos of the object exist. According to GEIPAN criteria, the case has moderate consistency: a single witness, a reconstruction, and no recordings.

The investigation concluded that the witness had probably seen a sky lantern carried by the wind. The point-like shape with a halo, the reddish-orange color, the strong brightness and the overall drift with the wind all fit. The duration of the movement matches a lantern about 200 m away drifting at wind speed, around 1 m/s. The sighting took place on a Saturday, a likely day for a lantern release at a local or private celebration, in calm weather with light wind. The differences in movement (the initial stop, then two brief vertical motions) could be due to local air currents created by urban heat islands, with no wind or rising air. The witness found the object strange because they did not recognize it and its movement seemed random; these elements account for that impression. The case was classified A.