Sighting in Trouville-sur-Mer, March 14, 2013

At 19:16, a witness noticed a yellow-orange glowing phenomenon in the sky and was intrigued by it. They filmed it for a few seconds and also took photos. They looked away for a moment, and when they looked at the sky again, the phenomenon had gone.

GEIPAN analysed the photos and the video, which it viewed online, and concluded that there was little doubt about the origin of the phenomenon. The sighting resembles one made by many witnesses in Martinique on 15 February 2013. At dusk, aircraft contrails are often orange and very bright, because the setting sun lights them while the sky behind is still dim. Certain weather conditions make them spectacular. Here, the aircraft was coming from the north-western horizon toward the witness, so its trail, although parallel to the ground, was seen from below at a very shallow angle and looked vertical. The object seemed almost motionless because it was heading toward the witness from at least 30 km away, and there was no fixed reference point in the sky for judging its movement. As the aircraft continued south-east, it entered the Earth's shadow: the trail was no longer lit, became dimmer than the sky, and disappeared. Many airliners fly in that direction (London-Barcelona, London-Toulouse), so identifying the specific aircraft would be of little value.

The case is classified A: an aircraft contrail lit by the setting sun.