Burgundy September 1988

Summary

On the night of September 4 to 5, 1988, around 1:15 AM, multiple witnesses across central France, mainly in the Burgundy region, observed a bright yellow or white oval-shaped object with a reddish trail. The object quickly crossed the sky for a few seconds. The phenomenon was particularly noticeable in the Yonne department, where many people saw it clearly. Depending on their location, witnesses also heard between four and five sonic booms as the object disappeared. These explosions were most clearly heard in Nièvre and Yonne, though the event was also reported as far as the Essonne region. Researchers concluded that the phenomenon was likely a large atmospheric entry, a natural but unusual event that can be explained by meteoric or space debris re-entering Earth's atmosphere at high speed.