AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS (93) 09.02.1981

On 9 February 1981 at about 14:45, a witness in Aulnay-sous-Bois saw an orange ball of fire with a gray smoke trail descend slowly and silently before the landscape hid it. Another similar ball then appeared. The investigation found that firefighters at a nearby airport had launched parachute distress flares around 14:30 that day. The source describes these flares as rising vertically to roughly 100–200 m, remaining lit for 1 minute, then falling gently and going out. The witness probably saw these flares.