Sighting in Sedan, January 9, 2011

On a Sunday evening, at around 6:50 p.m., a witness noticed several orange lights at low altitude. They appeared one after another and drifted slowly and silently across the sky. The witness began filming when the third phenomenon appeared. No other testimony was collected.

The investigation found that the description closely resembles successive passes of Thai lanterns, in terms of colour, speed, low altitude and repeated appearances from the same spot. However, the area is sparsely populated, and the local inquiry could not establish where any lanterns might have been released from, or by whom. Some details also seemed contradictory, notably the lights passing behind clouds even though the object was flying fairly low. The possibility of images produced by a laser projector was also considered, but no beam was seen or filmed.

Given these uncertainties, the GEIPAN classified the case as C, meaning there was insufficient data.