An account in Rh�ne, France

On October 4, 2014 between 11:00 PM and 11:30 PM, a witness observes for 10 minutes, from his balcony, a column of lights forming an S in the sky, above a nearby hill. The observation of orange balls in the sky for a few minutes, on a weekend night, clearly suggests Thai lanterns, probably released nearby at the end of a private party. The movement is observed coming from the southwest, which is consistent with the very light unstable southwest wind recorded at Lyon-Bron (weather). The photos confirm this hypothesis: the complex shapes seen in the photos are the result of motion blur due to the relatively long exposure time (1/4 second). The vertically stretched S shape corresponds to the upward trajectory of the lanterns, seen along an axis close to the wind axis (the witness's graphic reconstruction seems to poorly match the photos). The lanterns were probably released beyond the Saône (at Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or), and are between 400 and 800 meters from the witness (in the first photo). They measure 40 to 60 cm in diameter. GEIPAN classifies this case "A" observation of Thai lanterns.

Has this happened to you?

Write it down while you still remember the details. We will look for the others.

Tell us what you saw

Know someone this happened to?

If this reminds you of something a friend or a relative told you once and never mentioned again, send them this page. Reading that a stranger described the same thing is usually the part that helps.

By email By text

Nothing is tracked back to you and nothing is sent on your behalf. The link is just the page you are reading.

This is an official case file of GEIPAN, the French space agency's unidentified aerospace phenomena office, machine translated from French. The original text and the full investigation file are at geipan.fr. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request.