Let’s put some facts on the table about ‘Chinese Lanterns’, also known as Sky Lanterns

As we’ve all seen over recent years, one of the most common things that so-called ‘debunkers’ suggest when anomalous glowing lights are seen in the skies is that they’re simply ‘Chinese Lanterns’, also known as ‘Sky Lanterns’.

Yes, that’s right. Along with drones that nobody (including the military) can find, these pesky little floaters are supposedly able to regularly confuse pilots, airlline passengers, radar operators and just about anyone else who sees something anomalous wandering (or darting) around in our atmosphere.

In order to show how implausible that explanation most often is to try and explain away luminous UAP sightings, let’s lay some facts on the table:

1. The Legality Problem

Allegations that hordes of people are now regularly releasing Chinese Lanterns around the globe everyday (just fool us silly citizens who have an interest in UAP), simply don’t add up. As a result having started serious fires in a number of places around the world, Chinese Lanterns are in fact now illegal to sell and/or launch in many countries, including:

All of Australia and Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, Hawaii, Spain and Vietnam, most parts of Germany, plus some parts of China. In the USA, they were banned in 29 states of the USA (as of 2015), including California and Florida, among others. In Canada, a permit must be obtained in order to send one into the sky.

https://wildfiretoday.com/2015/12/31/update-on-the-legality-of-sky-lanterns-banned-in-28-states/

https://www.centralfiresc.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=216

2. The ‘Altitude Problem’

Aside from the issue of illegality, another issue for the ’Sky Lantern’ alibi is the altitude to which they can fly. Look, for example at the figures cited in this 2017 research paper entitled ‘Sky Lantern Safety Flight Profile for Risk Assessment’, from Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering:

Schuurman, M., & Gransden, D. (2017). Sky Lantern Safety Flight Profile for Risk Assessment. In AIAA Balloon Systems Conference: 5-9 June 2017, Denver, Colorado Article AIAA 2017-3289 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc. (AIAA). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2017-3289

https://research.tudelft.nl/files/20215986/AIAA_Skylantern_paper_version_TUDELFT.pdf

Here’s what the authors state about the altitudes to which sky lanterns generally float:

“Safety concerns related to the use of sky lanterns have been increasingly debated as the open flame, which is used for lifting the sky lantern, is uncontrolled and can potentially ignite large forest fires or man-made infrastructure.

Additionally, conflicting statements about the height and flight duration of the sky lantern exist between manufacturers and regulating safety bodies. According to manufacturers, sky lanterns can reach a height of up to 1mile (1600 meters) altitude, whereas some estimates, based on researched published by a Dutch government agency called the Nederlandse Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit (NVWA – The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority – NFCPSA), consider the achievable height to be on the order of only a few hundred meters.”

UAP and Orbs are very often reported flying at far greater heights than these relatively low altitudes, once again highlighting the inadequacy of the ‘Chinese Lantern’ as a catch-all excuse commonly called on by skeptics to dismiss luminous UAP events.

3. The Duration of Flight Problem

In the paper cited above, the achievable flight times for Chinese Lanterns were also far below those of a great many luminous UAP observations, with the upper limit being around 10 minutes.

“The current experimental research recorded burn times of 100 – 330 s, which can cause flight times of 200 – 600 s, excluding outliers; and the NFCPSA reported flight times of 120 – 300 s.”

In Summary:

At this point, I haven’t looked directly into scientific questions of luminosity, but it seems self-evident that most glowing orbs and luminous UAP emit far more energy (both visible and invisible) than is possible for run-of-the-mill Chinese Lanterns. I’ve certainly not yet hear of Chinese Lanterns that can cause radtion burns!

UAP are also often sighted, or recorded on sensors, moving against the wind or prevailing air currents, and/or in precise formations that are inexplicable for any group of airborne objects that are not under some form of direct control.

While I am totally in favor of ‘intelligent skepticism’, all too often, what is being argued by many so-called ‘debunkers’ simply doesn’t fly – a bit like some of those troublesome Chinese Lanterns that just fall back to earth where they torch crops and homes.

So, next time I see someone scream’ ‘Chinese Lanterns’ without offering a shred of evidence to support them being a viable explanation for any specific UAP or Orb sighting, you can fully expect a grimace and eye roll from those of us who like to see skepticism on this topic kept intelligent.