An account in Is�re, France

On August 12, 2009 at around 11:10 PM, a witness in his garden observes the passage from south to north of two ovoid-shaped objects that follow each other. Orange in color, they are located fairly high in the sky and move along a straight trajectory. No noise is heard during the observation, which lasted 30 seconds. The single witness, who testified spontaneously to the gendarmerie, seems familiar with the visual characteristics of shooting stars, which he wanted to observe, as well as those of aircraft traffic linked to the proximity of Lyon-St Exupéry airport. These two hypotheses can be ruled out. The characteristics of the observation, lasting 30 seconds, described by the witness (two not-too-bright oval lights of pale orange color following each other, not flying very high, along a straight trajectory, one of the lights oscillating, and no noise) lead to considering the hypothesis of luminous lanterns of the Thai type. The absence of steady wind is not inconsistent with a probable release of lanterns from the south of the observation location (area of the town's stadium). The single testimony gives little weight to this observation. The strangeness level is low, and a large proportion of the described characteristics correspond to those of a flight of luminous flying lanterns. This case is classified as B, as the probable observation of luminous flying lanterns.