Sighting in Toulouse, July 14, 2013

At around 11:45 p.m., a witness noticed five orange light sources moving about in the sky. Shortly afterwards, the witness made a second observation: an egg-shaped phenomenon, slightly opalescent and transparent, standing out against the dark sky as it moved.

The GEIPAN investigation matched the first part, orange lights travelling in a straight line, to Thai lanterns drifting from west to east on a light westerly wind, as the weather record confirms. The date, a national holiday, makes such releases likely. The second phenomenon looked more like sunlight reflecting off a satellite. The Calsky website reports exactly such a reflection at that moment from the Iridium 70 satellite, but it would have been visible in the north-east, fairly low on the horizon, which fits the testimony poorly. It may therefore have been another, unlisted satellite. That two independent events coincided is surprising, but not impossible.

GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable observation of Thai lanterns, followed by a reflection on a satellite.