An account in Gard, France

On October 11, 2013 at around 10 p.m., several people observe a bright yellow luminous phenomenon in the cloudy sky. The phenomenon flickers then goes out instantly. Only one testimony is reported. GEIPAN studied several hypotheses for this observation of a fixed yellow light point lasting 2 minutes: - Star or planet: the witness indicates a very cloudy sky, and the weather records from Nîmes and Avignon also do. Moreover, in the direction close to the one indicated by the witness (southeast), there is no very bright celestial body likely to be visible through a thin cloud layer. - Reflection of the sun on a geostationary satellite: no event of this type recorded for that time (it would be around 8 p.m.), and the cloud cover should obscure this phenomenon. - Thai lantern: the light as described by the witness could match a Thai lantern. A Friday evening is fairly conducive to this kind of release. To be seen motionless, there would need to be a tailwind (NW) or a headwind from the observer (SE), which is not exactly the case because it is a north wind. This hypothesis nonetheless remains to be considered. - Aircraft: the light as described by the witness could match the landing lights of an aircraft approaching or taking off from Avignon. The Flightradar24 site, which lists civilian aircraft equipped with transponder beacons, does not mention any aircraft in that area at that time, but a military aircraft seen head-on remains a possible hypothesis. GEIPAN does not have the information to confirm either of the last two hypotheses, which themselves remain weak. GEIPAN classifies this slightly unusual case in category "C" due to lack of information.