Sighting in Schiltigheim, June 13, 2013

At around half past midnight, a cyclist noticed a bright light and first took it for Saturn or Jupiter. After getting home, the witness was surprised to see that the bluish light was passing overhead without making any noise. Its path was a straight line, but the luminous ball seemed to zigzag at times. It then moved away and gradually faded into the distance. No other witness account was collected.

GEIPAN considered the strangeness of the event to be low. The straight-line movement with small zigzags, together with the brightness and the trajectory, matched a pass of the International Space Station (ISS). Two explanations remained possible, an aircraft or the ISS, with the latter judged very likely. The testimony was of medium to low consistency: it contained an internal contradiction about the directions of travel, and there was no sketch or photo. The case was classified B, as a very probable sighting of the ISS, with the witness probably having been fooled by the autokinetic illusion.