DIDENHEIM (68) 05.07.2015

On 5 July 2015 at 22:30, a witness in Didenheim (68) saw a yellow point approach through his large window. He went onto the terrace and saw it change direction while flashing rapidly, then disappear at high speed. His video shows distant streetlights and the moving point. No other account was collected. GEIPAN considers the powerful yellow light, flashing and moving slowly low above the horizon, suggestive of an aircraft preparing to land. It explains the apparent rapid disappearance as a heading change that took the aircraft's lights out of a head-on view. Such an aircraft can be visible from more than 20 km. The witness was 20 km from busy Basel-Mulhouse airport and 10 km from the recreational airfield at Mulhouse-Habsheim. GEIPAN acknowledges that it did not process the case quickly enough to identify the aircraft involved. It classifies the case as B: probable observation of an aircraft preparing to land. The Météociel record for Mulhouse showed southwest-to-west wind.