SAUVIGNY (55) 20.10.2015

On 20 October 2015 at 20:10, a witness at home in Sauvigny (55) saw 3–4 circular orange-red lights move silently north to south in a straight line across the night sky. They remained visible for about 15 minutes. He took several photographs; no other account was collected. Orange-red balls crossing the sky over a few minutes strongly suggested sky lanterns, initially thought probably released nearby after a private celebration. Their north-to-south motion matched the northerly wind recorded at Nancy-Ochey, 22 km away; see Météociel. Such festive phenomena are unusual on weekdays, but this was during school holidays. The photographs had considerable camera shake, normal for handheld night photography, but clearly showed what the analysis calls the witness's yellow-orange colour, characteristic of sky lanterns. The source thus describes orange-red initially and yellow-orange in the photographic analysis. A turn eastward near the end could reflect a local wind following the valley of the Ruisseau de Ruppes. GEIPAN initially published the case as B, probable lanterns. After additional gendarmerie information confirmed that sky lanterns had been released following a funeral, it reclassified the case A: certain observation of sky lanterns.