Sighting in Xirocourt, December 27, 2013

One evening, between about 11:00 and 11:30 pm, a witness saw three yellow luminous balls cross the sky from west to northeast. They moved quickly and silently, stayed in formation, and soon vanished at the horizon. The sighting lasted about a minute. The witness described a triangular halo around the objects and reported a change in their course. Their drawing of the objects was included in the file.

The wind was blowing from the south at 20 km/h. GEIPAN noted that the apparent speed the witness described matched objects carried by that wind at an altitude of around a hundred metres. The triangular halo fit poorly with standard Thai lanterns, but the drawing resembled a photo of a lantern fairly closely. The change of course also sat badly with drifting on the wind, which would normally be in a straight line; it could have been a local gust or a mistaken estimate of distance.

The witness rejected the lantern explanation. GEIPAN nonetheless classified the case as B, probable sighting of Thai lanterns, because of the strong similarity to such objects, the formation flight following the wind, and a date and time consistent with the end of a private party on a weekend evening.