LILLE (59) 21.02.2015

On Saturday 21 February 2015 at 23:30, a driver and his passenger saw several orange lights moving silently across the sky over Lille (59). Only 1 account was collected. GEIPAN considers orange balls crossing the sky over a few minutes on a weekend night strongly suggestive of sky lanterns probably released nearby after a private celebration. This was the first Saturday after Chinese New Year on 19 February, a major occasion for lantern releases. Because the witness observed several objects intermittently from a moving car, their precise paths could not be reconstructed or compared with the light easterly wind; see Météociel. GEIPAN received no other similar report from Lille that evening. Despite the strong resemblance to lanterns, the inability to verify the trajectory leads to classification C for insufficient information. The witness rejects the proposed lantern explanation.