Sighting in Talence, March 9, 2014

Shortly after midnight, a witness was on the terrace of their apartment when they saw an orange, diamond-shaped object cross the sky. It made no noise. According to the witness, it moved at about the speed of an aircraft along a southeast to northwest path, and it eventually drifted away toward the northwest.

GEIPAN noted that an orange object flying silently and horizontally, in the same direction as the wind, strongly suggests a flying lantern, probably released at the end of a party. The wind recorded at Bordeaux was light and blew from the southeast, which fits the direction of travel. A diamond shape is unusual for a Thai lantern, so it could also have been a Tura balloon, which works on the same hot-air principle. The case was classified B, a probable flying lantern. GEIPAN did not try to trace whoever released it.