BANDOL (83) 01.12.2013

Around 17:00 on 1 December 2013, people walking the coastal customs path at Bandol (83) saw a bright glow west of the Sun. It persisted after sunset as 2 stationary yellow-orange points visible to the naked eye, fading after 15 minutes. Only 1 account was collected. GEIPAN found the reddish-orange sunset trails strongly suggestive of aircraft contrails made brilliant by backlighting; the source refers to examples of unusual contrails. The attached Flightradar24 record listed visible aircraft that day. In the excellent visibility, GEIPAN states that contrails could be seen from up to 120 km. Distance and the aircraft travelling away produced a shallow viewing angle and foreshortened perspective, also making angular movement appear slow. GEIPAN classified the case A: conclusively identified aircraft contrail.