Sighting in Salignac-Eyvigues, September 10, 2017

On a Sunday evening at 10:26 pm, a witness standing on their terrace noticed a low light to the west. It soon seemed to be heading toward them, and they made out a triangular shape. They hurried indoors for binoculars. Through them, the witness described a triangular, orange object whose brighter tips looked almost white. It moved silently along a straight west-to-east path. After about fifteen seconds the witness lost sight of it. The disappearance was abrupt and they could not explain it, though a cloud may have hidden the object. No other witness account was collected.

GEIPAN concluded that the witness had probably seen a Thai lantern. The orange color, the eastward movement and the date (a summer Sunday evening, a good time for festivities) all fit. No weather station had data within 25 km; the one at Gourdon, 25 km away, nonetheless showed a strong easterly wind component at that hour. The witness's objections carried little weight given GEIPAN's experience with lantern reports: a lantern can be alone, travel at a steady speed depending on the wind at its altitude (100 to 300 m), show no visible flame because the burner hides it, come in various shapes (triangular, square, heart-shaped) and have uneven coloring because of the paper. The case was classified B: Thai lantern.