DOLE (39) 05.08.2020

On Wednesday 5 August 2020 between 22:45 and 22:55, a witness successively saw five luminous phenomena initially at azimuth 358°, nearly north, and elevation about 3°. They had identical shapes, brightness, sizes, directions, paths and angular speeds. The only difference was that phenomena 3 and 4 followed each other about 10° apart. Their path was straight toward the southwest. Angular speed was described as constant at 16.57° per minute before becoming almost zero. The witness also noted intermittent disappearances and brightness changes as though the UAPs entered cloud or fog. They disappeared at azimuth 329°. No particular sound was heard. He recorded a mobile-phone video. Only one account was collected. The file has good evidential substance: very precise witness data, with the video adding value. Initially he had not considered a lantern release, which is why he contacted GEIPAN. On 19 October 2020, he contacted GEIPAN again. After watching videos of lantern misidentifications, he confirmed that his observation, particularly the extinction, matched exactly. The path and apparent speed also agreed with that evening’s wind data. The investigation supports this revised assessment. Sky lanterns fit: - Appearance: fairly bright points about 5 arcminutes across, seeming to flicker slightly, in shades from yellow through orange to red/pink, typical of lanterns. - Path: successive UAPs moving southwest fit lanterns in the same airflow, matching wind direction recorded at Tavaux weather station, 7 km away (see weather document). - Duration and disappearance: the stated 5-minute observation fits a lantern flight. Their disappearance was probably caused by burners gradually going out, which can falsely suggest entry into clouds even though clouds are generally higher than lanterns’ maximum altitude. - Speed: GEIPAN explains that interpreting 16.57° per minute as about 87 km/h resulted from assuming a distance of about 5 km. At the more probable distance of a few hundred metres, the speed becomes about 8–9 km/h, consistent with windborne lanterns (see Google Earth and distance/speed calculations). A weekday-evening release is unusual, but GEIPAN notes that an August family celebration after a long lockdown was possible. The Jura prefecture stated that no lantern releases were authorized between 24 April and 6 October 2020 because of successive drought orders. Any release would therefore have been unauthorized, and GEIPAN says its origin cannot be traced. GEIPAN classifies the case B: very probable misidentification of sky lanterns.