Sighting in Saint-Laurent-le-Minier, July 8, 2014

At 9:33 p.m., a witness was intrigued by a very bright, yellow, rectangular shape moving in a straight line above the horizon. The object was fast and silent, and stayed in view for 6 to 8 seconds. The witness was looking south-east and saw it cross from left to right; they made drawings of it. A grey halo surrounded the object. No other witness account was collected.

The sun had set 8 minutes earlier. According to the investigation, an aircraft lit from the side by the setting sun can look like a very bright rectangle: the wings do not receive the sun's rays directly, and the flat tail fin reflects the light in a different direction from the cylindrical fuselage. The grey halo could be an atmospheric optical effect, which is fairly complex at low elevation, or a local dazzle effect in the witness's eye. A Flightradar record identified a candidate aircraft: an Air France flight from Orly to Marseille, on approach to Marignane. GEIPAN classified the case as A: an aircraft observed at sunset.