Sighting in Toulouse, March 11, 2018

At about one in the morning, on a night between a Saturday and a Sunday, a motorist noticed a very bright point moving quickly across the sky. No particular noise was heard as it passed. The yellow point went out several times in succession, then vanished completely after about six seconds of observation. The witness was alone in seeing it, and no other testimony was collected.

GEIPAN rated the case as of fairly average strangeness and good consistency, since the account was fairly precise even though there was only one witness. It was classed B: probable misidentification of a Thai lantern. The description fits this explanation very closely: a yellow light, moving with the wind at least toward the end of the sighting, and flickering on-and-off extinctions typical of a lantern's burner dying out. The change of direction can be explained by wind fluctuations at altitude. A Saturday-to-Sunday night is also a traditional time for such launches. A release in a city is uncommon, but the site was close to the banks of the Garonne, a place well suited to launching a lantern. Finally, the witness's limited field of view, in an urban setting and from inside a car, explains why the sighting lasted only a few seconds.