Sighting in Villefranche-sur-Mer, November 25, 2024

In the evening, at 7:01 pm, a witness at home noticed an unusual light in the sky toward the east-northeast. It appeared as five to ten white circular shapes moving around in a circle. They vanished after about five minutes. The witness was the only person to see it and managed to film it.

Analysis of the video and the testimony showed that the sky was covered by a layer of stratocumulus at roughly 2,000 metres. This layer is clearly visible in the recording, and both the witness and Météo-France cloud cover data confirm it. The phenomenon most likely came from ground-based searchlights pointed at the sky, whose beams lit up these low clouds. Such lights, known as "skytrackers", are often used for entertainment or promotional events.

The investigation established that a show, "stand up Monaco", was starting at that exact time at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, in the direction the witness indicated, about 9.5 km away. No information could be obtained about whether searchlights were used outdoors, but this explanation remains plausible and consistent with the appearance and position of the phenomenon. GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable observation of skytrackers.