Pilot witness in Tarn, France

On December 5, 2015 at 5:55 PM, a motorist and his son observe for 1 minute a stationary yellow-orange phenomenon as bright as Venus in the sky. No particular noise is heard. The witness turns his head and when he looks again, the phenomenon has disappeared. The observation of a large bright point in the sky for one minute can have several origins: - The reflection of the sun on a satellite, Iridium or other: a check on the Calsky website indicates no candidate satellite. - The reflection of the sun on the fuselage or wings of an aircraft: at this time, when the sun is less than 7° below the horizon, the aircraft would need to be above 15,000 m to still be in sunlight. - An aircraft seen head-on, lights on: a check on the Flightradar website indicates that an aircraft taking off from Carcassonne passes exactly in the witnesses' line of sight at that precise moment. This aircraft probably took off with its lights on, and the pilot will have turned them off once sufficient altitude was reached, or the witnesses left the cone of light of the aircraft's lights. Being face-on to the witnesses, who are also moving in their vehicle, this bright point appeared stationary for one minute. After the lights were turned off, or the witnesses left the cone of light, the navigation lights, far less powerful, against a sky still slightly bright, could have escaped the gaze of the witnesses who were looking for a powerful light. The GEIPAN classifies this case "A": observation of the lights of flight RYR 1761.