CHATELET (LE) (18) 11.05.2013

On 11 May 2013 around midnight in Le Chatelet (18), a motorist saw several luminous orange balls silently follow one another across the sky. He described a low passage beneath clouds on a straight path towards Marcais, northeast of Le Chatelet. He took photographs, but GEIPAN did not receive the originals. No other account was collected. Meteociel recorded an established west-southwesterly wind at Chateauroux, with similar readings at Bourges. The gendarmes' sky-lantern hypothesis fits both the observation and local wind. GEIPAN notes that evenings during May's long weekends favour celebrations at which such lanterns might be released. The case is classified B: probable sky lanterns.