An account in Aube, France

On January 2, 2015 at 1:30 a.m., a witness is looking at the stars from his window. He suddenly sees a disorderly group of about ten luminous balls silently flying over the city. The observation lasts 15 seconds before the objects are hidden by the rooftops and the horizon. Only one testimony is collected. The witness, contacted by phone, finally states that his window faces southwest. The astronomical map confirms that Orion is in the southwest (and not in the west as indicated by the witness), and the Moon is in the west/southwest; the reference points on the cardinal directions therefore need to be adjusted: it is toward the south-southeast that the witness saw the objects depart. The weather report at Troyes indicates a slight southeast wind measured at ground level, a priori incompatible with a movement toward the south-southeast of the objects, assuming they were carried by the wind. The observation of yellow balls crossing the sky in one minute, on a weekend night of celebrations, strongly suggests Thai lanterns, probably released nearby at the end of a private party; the description the witness gives of them matches these objects very frequently launched on all sorts of occasions, but the behavior of these objects and their direction of movement matches poorly with the wind recorded at Troyes. A weather assessment with Météo-France indicated that the wind at altitude was from the southwest sector, that is, perpendicular to the ground wind: this could explain the turbulent movements, but not the movement toward the south-southeast. This hypothesis of Thai lanterns launched for the celebrations cannot be confirmed. GEIPAN classifies this case "C" due to lack of cross-checking: photos, videos, or other testimonies.