An account in Haute-Garonne, France

On September 13, 2015, between 1:15 and 1:30 a.m., a witness observed from his balcony the silent passage from the southeast to the northwest of 8 luminous objects (appearing successively), bright orange in color, in a clear sky. The objects disappeared one after another. The witness took photographs. Only one testimony was collected on this phenomenon. The observation of orange balls crossing the sky in a few minutes, on a weekend night, strongly suggests Thai lanterns, probably released nearby at the end of a local festival or a private party. The witness took a few photos: they turned out to be out of focus (focus blur, very common on night photos under these conditions) and show only a blurry orange circle. They do however prove the reality of the phenomenon, and the color of the phenomenon is entirely consistent with that of Thai lanterns. The movement was observed from the southeast to the northwest, which is compatible with the east wind, shifting to southeast during the night, recorded at Toulouse Blagnac (Météociel data). The very regular movement of the objects in the sky is entirely normal for an object carried by a light wind; if the objects fly over industrial areas with strong ventilation or large heat sources, the trajectory is of course irregular. Since lanterns are often released one after another, after the same delay corresponding to the time needed to light the burner, the result is a very organized line of flying lights. Due to their low intrinsic brightness, Thai lanterns are most often perceived as farther away than they really are, and therefore faster. GEIPAN classifies this case "B": probable observation of Thai lanterns.