Sighting in Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey, December 27, 2015

A motorist was struck by an fluorescent orange object in the sky, which they watched for about ten minutes in the early evening (between 5:05 and 5:15 pm). It reminded them of an upturned soup plate and was surrounded by an orange halo. The object first seemed to hang still, then moved off to the southwest without any sound and vanished at the horizon. Several other motorists stopped at the roadside reportedly saw it too, but only one account was collected. The witness took a photo, which showed nothing useful.

The investigation concluded that an orange ball visible for a few minutes in the sky on a weekend night strongly suggests a Thai lantern, probably released at the end of a private party during the holiday season. The movement observed was slight, toward the southwest. The weather station at Auribeau-sur-Siagne, 12 km away, recorded no wind, but at sunset in mountainous terrain very light, hard-to-predict local winds can occur depending on the valley, so this reading does not confirm anything. The lack of a result on the photo is not surprising, since phone cameras perform poorly in low light. Although the hypothesis could not be confirmed, given the description and how often lanterns are released at the end of the year, the GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable Thai lantern.