An account in Nord, France

On December 27, 2015 at 6:35 PM, a witness saw 2 circular shapes appear in the clear sky, flying slightly offset one behind the other. The trajectory is South-North (or NE). The witness notices a detail on the second shape: a red glowing point goes out after two seconds. The observation lasts less than 10 seconds in total. No other testimony will be collected. The observation of several "white circular shapes flying side by side" clearly suggests Thai lanterns. The movement is observed from South to North, which is consistent with the wind direction recorded at Lille and at Cambrai (10km) (see the attached weather document). The angular movement appears rapid (50° in 10 seconds) but is consistent with the recorded wind speeds (20 km/h), taking into account a possible error or uncertainty of a factor of 2 on the actual wind speed on site, on the altitude of the lantern (50 or 100m), or on the observation duration (10 or 20 seconds). GEIPAN classifies this case "B": probable observation of Thai lanterns.