An account in Vienne, France

GEIPAN was informed on October 1st by the OVNI66 website of several observations made on September 30th around 11:50 PM. The witnesses report simultaneous observations of very bright glowing balls rapidly crossing part of the sky, which seems to be a bolide, a type of meteor (see explanation of the phenomenon in the article "a bolide?"). "The meteor that crossed the sky of Gers yesterday Wednesday September 30, 2015 at 10:53 PM was visible from Les-Vans (07), Campome (66), Canet (66), l'Yssandon (19), Saint-Victor-en-Marche, Brissac (34), Chemillé-Melay in Maine-et-Loire (49), Toulouse (31) and as far as Lyon (69)." (source OVNI66). GEIPAN directly received a formal testimony of an observation at 10:53 PM in BONNES (86) near Poitiers. Many witnesses reported themselves in Toulouse to the newspaper "La Dépêche du midi". A GEIPAN member also observed it out of the corner of his eye. At 10:53 PM, GEIPAN's automatic "Allsky" camera also recorded the phenomenon, as did the cameras of the Pic du Midi observatory and Rochechouart (87) between Angoulême and Limoges (see camera images). The three-dimensional modeling produced from the camera images makes it possible to perfectly characterize the trajectory of the luminous phenomenon, at a very high altitude of around 60 km. It was produced by the re-entry into the atmosphere of a meteoroid, fragments of which may have reached the ground. (See the Google Earth modeling: 2015-30-09 2254.kmz) The short duration of the phenomenon implies an initial speed greater than 8 km/s, which points toward a natural origin: a small mineral object probably from the asteroid belt. A space debris would have produced a longer phenomenon. GEIPAN checked on the site http://www.calsky.com that no cataloged space debris had fallen that day within visibility of France. GEIPAN classifies this case "A" as perfectly identified: observation of a bolide of natural origin.