Sighting in Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, December 21, 2008

Two people, a driver and their passenger, noticed something in the sky that puzzled them. They parked the car and watched for several minutes as three yellow-orange circles of light, similar to a lighter flame, moved along without making any sound. According to the witnesses, the objects had a ring. They drifted in the direction of the wind, which the weather records show was a light westerly that evening.

GEIPAN found that this description matches Chinese-style sky lanterns, often called Thai lanterns, very closely, and that the details given by the witnesses strengthen this explanation. The time of the sighting, in the evening, and the day, a Sunday, were not typical for a lantern release. It could nevertheless have been a trial ahead of a larger release planned for the end-of-year holidays. One of the witnesses does not accept this explanation, but the case is classified B: probable observation of Thai lanterns.