Red lights in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France

On December 24, 2015 at 5:50 pm, two people out for a walk observe for 8 minutes the silent movement of an intense red light in the slightly cloudy sky. This light has an upward trajectory and takes on a more orange color before disappearing into the clouds. The intrigued witnesses move and then see a black shape detach from the clouds and silently follow first a straight trajectory, then a descending one. Unfortunately, they lose sight of the shape, whose dark color then blends with that of the mountain. Only one testimony was collected. The witness did extensive research to try to find other testimonies and an explanation for what she saw. Based only on the elements of color, shape, and brightness, what the witness describes is already typical of an observation of a Thai lantern. The other elements that support this hypothesis are a "festive" date (December 24) and even more so the final phase of the trajectory and observation. Indeed, an object that has become dark is described as starting to descend as if to land; this is exactly what happens at the end of a lantern's combustion, the latter remaining nevertheless visible as a gray or black shape (not always round, here the witness speaks of a honeycomb shape) when the night is not too dark (the witness indicates that the moon was lighting in chiaroscuro). The witness indicates an absence of wind. However, ground wind is often not felt by witnesses while there is often wind at 100 or 200 meters in height. A light wind of 6 km/h can already cause a displacement of 1 km in 10 minutes and, in doing so, a large angular excursion in the sky for a lantern flying at 100 meters in height. Unfortunately, it is not possible to correlate the trajectory with the wind, because there is no local weather record available. The absence of noise from an unknown object adds to the strangeness of the observation but remains entirely explainable for an object carried by the wind. The witness thinks of a large object (twice the size of a glider). This estimate is explained by the fact that when one does not recognize an object and does not know the distance separating one from it, it is very difficult for any witness to assess its size. Many indications given by the witness corroborate the hypothesis of the observation of the passage of a Thai lantern launched on the occasion of a private celebration. Consequently, GEIPAN classifies the observation as B: probable observation of a Thai lantern.