Sighting in Vallauris, August 7, 2009

At 9:20 pm, the main witness joined their son on a first-floor balcony. The son had noticed an orange, sphere-shaped object in the sky and was puzzled by its path and its changes of direction. The witness also saw an orange ball moving at high altitude, silently and at a steady speed. A photograph was taken.

The object then moved away and went out, turning grey, before disappearing completely behind a hill. The sighting lasted about three minutes.

GEIPAN's investigation found that the description matched a Thai lantern. Its speed was consistent with the local weather, which had little wind and variable thermal breezes. The duration of the sighting and the way the object vanished also fit. The witness took the object to be distant and very large, a common mistake because the distance of an unfamiliar object cannot be judged. The case was classified B: probably the passage of a Thai lantern.