Sighting in Sarraméa, April 19, 1991

At around 5:00–5:30 pm, three witnesses were standing on top of a treeless plateau near a mountain pass in New Caledonia. The sky was clear. They suddenly saw two luminous phenomena pass by, which they described as circular ("discs", "round shape", "ball"). The colours they reported differed from one witness to another: silver for one, fluorescent green for another, and blue, pink and fluorescent green for the third. The phenomena moved silently in a straight line from east to west, then disappeared behind trees. The sighting lasted 2 to 3 seconds for two of the witnesses and about ten seconds for the third. One of them thought of a satellite breaking up.

The gendarmerie investigation ruled out an aircraft flight. GEIPAN considered the case to be of low strangeness but good consistency, with three witnesses and fairly precise accounts. On re-examination it was reclassified from D to A: it was very probably the atmospheric entry of a meteoroid. The very fast movement of two luminous objects and the brief duration are typical of this phenomenon, which can be seen in daylight, with one or several glows caused by fragmentation, with or without sound. A case in the United States on 8 April 2018 is similar. The short duration and the east-to-west path argue against a satellite re-entry, and no matching artificial re-entry was recorded.