[AERO EZY] de GATWICK (GB.WSX) vers NICE (06) 21.05.2011

On 21 May 2011, a passenger on an airliner from Gatwick to Nice reported an experience he could not explain. The aircraft passed through turbulence beneath blue sky, with a cloud layer below. He then saw a large brown horizontal streak parallel to the aircraft and, below the wing, a white sphere with very blurred edges, apparently the size of a 1-cent coin held at arm's length. He took photographs during an observation lasting about 15 minutes, from 19:55 to 20:10. GEIPAN explains that the streak, called grey in the analysis, was the shadow of the aircraft's contrail on cloud. The bright ball was an atmospheric optical phenomenon similar to a Brocken spectre: light backscattered by mist droplets towards an observer situated in the direction of the Sun. This explanation treats the vibrations felt by the witnesses as independent of the optical phenomenon. The bright ball probably disappeared because the cloud layer was interrupted.