Pilot witness in Sarthe, France

On Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 6:30 PM, a witness is intrigued by an orange luminous point larger than an airplane, silent, and motionless in the clear sky. After a few minutes, the object moves away and disappears quickly in an upward trajectory. GEIPAN analyzed two hypotheses for this orange luminous point that moved little, near the horizon: - An airplane seen head-on, at low altitude, or on approach to an airport (Bordeaux Mérignac, in this case). The witness would have seen the airplane approaching and seen its blinking lights. Radar traces from military air control show heavy air traffic at that time in the area (see record, unfortunately very hard to read, which does not allow a clear correlation with the observation). In the sector bounded to the northwest of Le Taillan by Sainte-Hélène and to the northeast by Cubzac, the following trajectories corresponding to civilian aircraft can be seen: -GE 751 heading 200 FL 380 (altitude 12000 m) -GE 962 climbing through FL110 (altitude 3300 m) on heading 020 after a turn south of St Jean d'ILLAC and an initial route of 220. -GA474 on heading 020 FL380 (altitude 12000 m). - 2 superimposed trajectories corresponding to an aircraft on heading 220 descending through 3500' (altitude 1200 m) at 5:13 PM and an aircraft on heading 040 at 5:46 PM climbing through 2000'. - GE 743 on heading 160 at 3800' (altitude 1300 m). -A Thai lantern: the color and appearance match well, as do the duration and elevation; but the slight east wind should have pushed the lantern to the left of the observer, which the witness does not mention. One could also think of a local wind, slightly different from the one recorded at Mérignac. Given the time of the observation, at dusk, it could also be a reflection of the sun on a weather balloon launched from Mérignac. Also noted that evening at very close times, two phenomena of powerful luminous points in the sky: - the passage of the International Space Station ISS from 6:07 PM to 6:16 PM, from SW to NE (the observation direction matches poorly with the one indicated by the witness). - and a flash of a few seconds from an Iridium satellite at 6:25 PM due south, slightly above the horizon. Multiple hypotheses can explain this very unremarkable observation, but none fits the testimony perfectly. GEIPAN classifies this case as C due to lack of information and cross-referencing.