Sighting in Sérignan, August 25, 2016

A family was stargazing with a telescope when, at around 10:30 p.m., they saw a phenomenon cross the sky at very high speed with the naked eye. It was made up of five lights arranged in a V, yellow-orange tending toward reddish. No particular sound was heard during the observation, which lasted less than five seconds. According to the only account collected, the phenomenon blocked out the stars as it passed.

GEIPAN rated the case as moderately strange and of good consistency: several people were present, but there was only one account, and it was fairly precise. Three explanations were considered. Thai lanterns were ruled out, because the shape of the phenomenon and the fact that it did not move with the wind did not fit. A flock of birds lit by street lamps was deemed possible, but the extreme speed and the way the lights followed one another in a line sit poorly with that idea. A fragmented meteor, too faint to be picked up by the FRIPON network, accounts for every element: the shape, the very fast movement in a line, the color and the stars being blocked out. The case was classified B: probable misidentification of a fragmented meteor.