Sighting in Saint-Estève, May 17, 2014
Pyrénées-Orientales, Occitanie, France
Sighting on May 17, 2014 in Saint-Estève (Pyrénées-Orientales, France). According to GEIPAN, it was most probably a sky lantern (class B).
What happened
On an evening in May 2014, a witness and their spouse noticed a luminous phenomenon in the sky. Five or six red balls appeared from the northwest and moved toward the southeast. A second wave of about fifteen similar balls was then seen. All of them moved slowly and silently. In their statement, the witness had mistakenly given March instead of May as the month.
GEIPAN found that the account fitted the sighting of Thai lanterns: orange balls drifting slowly in a straight line at low altitude, carried by the wind, on a weekend evening. The METEOCIEL record for Perpignan confirmed a weakening northwest wind. The case was classified B, a very probable observation of Thai lanterns. Because the case showed little strangeness, GEIPAN did not try to trace whoever released them.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- May 17, 2014
- Location
- Saint-Estève · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- B
- Explanation
- Sky lanterns
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2014-05-08704
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.