An account in Manche, France

The witness drives on the N13 from Chef-du-Pont to Carentan, heading southeast. He observes "like a comet" of white-yellow color. The witness indicates that the weather is clear, but the weather data from Meteociel indicate rain in Cherbourg, and dying showers in Caen. The sun rose at 7:45 a.m. in the E-SE (114°), that is, slightly to the left of the N13's axis (about 135°). At 8 a.m., the witness therefore has the rising sun almost directly ahead, perhaps veiled by morning mist. The Flightradar24 site (see attached) indicates at that time several large airliners flying at high altitude, coming from the West heading East: an Airbus A330 ID DLH425, and a Boeing 777. The contrails of these planes are visible up to about 120 km from the observer, where they appear with an elevation above the horizon of about 6°. At that distance, the apparent movement is very slight, the trail appears very short due to the perspective effect, and against the light of the rising sun appears yellow, orange, or even red in some cases. See: strange airplane contrails. It is these airplane contrails, shaped like a comet, that the witness saw near the horizon. The GEIPAN classifies this case "A": observation of airplane contrails.