SAINT-ETIENNE-DE-BOULOGNE (07) 07.01.2013

On 7 January 2013, a witness at the highest point of the Col de l'Escrinet in Ardèche saw a fiery-colored luminous phenomenon with a broad yellow trail cross the sky horizontally from west to east. GEIPAN links this case to the simultaneous observation by an airline pilot recorded as Aero ARA 102 (001) 07.01.2013. Other accounts subsequently appeared in the press. Given the witness accounts, GEIPAN considers the phenomenon very probably the atmospheric reentry of satellite debris, possibly from Iridium 33. The case is classified B.