An account in Ain, France

On September 14, 1959 at 5:10-15 in the morning, three witnesses south of Sali (Algeria) are intrigued by the movements of a luminous orange-colored body in the sky. At 5:30 the object stops moving. For 40 minutes they note that the body drifts slowly toward the NE while frequently changing appearance and color (red at one end). The observation is made with binoculars. No trail and no noise were noted. The observation will last about one hour in total. Only one testimony is collected with two diagrams (evolution of the object and changes of shape). Another observation is noted in the report. It describes, for September 12, 1959 at 7:00 PM, the observation of an orange-colored phenomenon with the apparent diameter of a star, located at very high altitude and moving at great speed from 180° to 360° in about 30 seconds. No particular sound is noticed. Only one testimony is collected. For the first observation, due to the duration of the observation, the slow movement, and the time close to sunrise, GEIPAN classifies the case as B: probable observation of a balloon lit by the rising sun. The observation and movement directions lack precision. For the September 12 observation also reported in the testimony, GEIPAN proposes the hypothesis of the passage of a meteoroid (short observation of the high-speed movement of an elongated orange luminous phenomenon at very high altitude).