MOTTE-SERVOLEX (LA) (73) 02.06.2018

On Saturday 2 June 2018, starting at 22:05, a witness (T1) at home in La Motte-Servolex (73) saw a circular orange glow coming from the direction of Chambéry. It moved slowly through the stormy sky, silently according to the French summary. Through binoculars, he could distinguish 3 lights rather than 1, seemingly forming a UAP surrounded by an orange haze. Two other witnesses, T2 and T3, also saw the UAP. GEIPAN investigated possible misidentification of a group of sky lanterns and also considered party balloons with integrated LEDs. These are closely related hypotheses. T1's reported 40-minute sighting, whose duration was checked and substantiated, and a 4-minute observation of 4 stationary blue lights varying from medium to high intensity led GEIPAN to favor LED balloons. Sky lanterns remain a secondary possibility. T1's impression of an underlying structure, seen momentarily during a flash of lightning, remains a perceived unusual feature. Email exchanges with him provided additional information but did not explain everything. They also introduced further unusual features that were themselves more or less incompatible with the proposed explanations. This UAP closely resembles the one in the case CHAMBÉRY (73), 03.06.2018, which occurred the following day at roughly the same time and likewise involved an excessively long observation duration. GEIPAN's analysis nevertheless finds LED party balloons or sky lanterns probable. Balloons or lanterns could have been released on both consecutive weekend evenings, and most observation parameters fit that explanation. GEIPAN classifies the case as B: observation of party balloons with integrated LEDs or a group of sky lanterns.