Sighting in Saint-Denis, August 25, 2013

A witness standing on their balcony between 7:30 and 7:45 pm saw two glowing phenomena cross the sky one after the other, and could not identify either. The first was a large red light that moved slowly for about two minutes. The second was a bright white light that came in from the sea.

The investigation put forward two possible explanations. The red light could have been a Thai lantern carried toward the witness by the wind, since the prevailing wind on Reunion Island blows from the east. The white light could have been a satellite: Calsky predictions show the satellite "USA 217/STPSat-2" passing on a path consistent with the time of the sighting. However, the brightness the witness described does not match the faint brightness the model predicts (magnitude between 5 and 8), although a reflection cannot be ruled out. It might also have been another, unlisted military satellite that was brighter.

Although plausible, neither hypothesis is solid enough for GEIPAN to treat it as very probable. The case, judged to be of little strangeness, is classified C because there is not enough information to strengthen them.