CARTELEGUE (33) 07.07.2019

On 7 July 2019 around 00:30, a witness in his garden looked north and saw 2 fairly large orange balls travelling in parallel from west to east. They were silent, did not flash and had identical speed and steady brightness. He estimated their distance at 500–1,000 m. Two identical balls then joined them, forming a trapezoid in formation. They subsequently disappeared one after another. Despite 2 witnesses, the case has moderate evidential strength: 1 account, only a Gendarmerie report rather than a technical questionnaire, and a photograph without its original source file (see the investigation report). GEIPAN identifies sky lanterns. Around 00:30 on a Saturday-to-Sunday night is a typical time for releases at private celebrations such as weddings. The orange colour, confirmed with IPACO image analysis, is typical. The west-to-east movement matches the wind, and successive disappearances fit lanterns burning out. The second pair apparently catching up can be explained by different distances: if closer, it would move faster across the witness’s view until seeming to join the first pair. GEIPAN also describes the rain-free, light-wind conditions as ideal for a release without risk. The witness was informed of the hypothesis on 8 July and rejected it on 13 July. He stressed that the 4 spheres were larger, identical in size, uniformly orange without flicker or differences in brightness, moving at equal speed along a straight west-to-east path in a perfect trapezoid, in pairs at constant altitude. He asked whether the photographic light trace could undergo spectrographic analysis and whether aviation authorities had any airliner sightings or radar echoes. GEIPAN responds that the first 2 points, including the photograph’s colour analysis, are typical of lanterns. The delay before investigation prevented recovery of French Air and Space Force radar tracks. Nevertheless, it considers the lantern hypothesis strong enough not to retain an aircraft explanation. The case is classified A: observation of sky lanterns.