Sighting in Toulouse, April 13, 2025

Two witnesses were driving on the Toulouse ring road at around 9:10 pm on a Sunday evening when they noticed a fairly large, bright white object in the sky. It moved for 4 seconds along a descending, parabola-shaped path. No trail or halo could be seen. The witnesses said its shape was similar to that of a helicopter. It first appeared at an azimuth of 315° and an elevation of 30°, then vanished in the east, at the level of the horizon.

Only one of the two witnesses completed a Technical Questionnaire, and there is no photo or video, so the GEIPAN rated the case's consistency as medium.

The only hypothesis examined was that of a bolide (fireball), and several points support it: the elongated shape, the white colour, the strong brightness, and the fast movement along a descending parabolic path. A bolide did cross the sky over France at that time and was seen by 56 witnesses, from Toulouse in the south to northwest of Chartres and across the whole west of the country, according to the IMO report. Its appearance, its overall west-to-east trajectory and its duration (most often 3.5 seconds) match what the witnesses described. The point where the object appeared also fits the sighting by another witness in the Toulouse area (azimuth 330°, elevation 30°). The GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of a bolide.