Hundreds witness a luminous phenomenon over Papeete

Summary

At 6:50 PM on September 26, 1983, hundreds of people in French Polynesia watched six to eight bright points of varying sizes cross the sky from west to east at high speed, leaving luminous trails. The altitude was estimated at around 10,000 meters and no sound was heard. Investigators concluded it was most likely the atmospheric entry of a natural object such as a meteorite.

The number of witnesses and the precision of their observations made this one of the most notable cases in the GEIPAN database. It was classified B, indicating a probable conventional explanation without full confirmation.