Sighting in Sainville, August 8, 2016

On the evening of 8 August 2016, the witness and three friends had set up in a fallow field to watch the stars. Turning their head, the witness noticed a white luminous object in the sky moving silently along a straight path. Its brightness faded quickly and the object disappeared. The sighting lasted about ten seconds. Several people were present, but only one testimony was collected, and there is no photograph.

GEIPAN considered the case to have moderate strangeness and low consistency, and classified it B: probable misidentification of a Thai lantern. The description matches several features typical of this kind of mistake: a very bright white point of light, moving silently in the direction of the wind, and a faint red light at the end of the sighting, consistent with a lantern burning out. The witness did not find this explanation convincing because they had felt no wind at ground level. However, calm at ground level does not rule out wind at altitude, which the weather investigation confirmed. The launch site could not be formally identified.