An account in Alpes-Maritimes, France

On Sunday, August 5, 2012 shortly after 10:00 PM, a young couple returning from NICE to reach their home took the D2564 and were surprised to see, while driving and then stopped at the side of the road, the silent movement of 5 to 6 shapes of varied colors blinking rapidly. These shapes moved toward the West in a descending trajectory and were very quickly hidden by a hill. The observation lasted less than a minute. Only one testimony was collected. The witnesses' lack of knowledge of the existence of glowing balloons is without a doubt the cause of the strangeness and the origin of the filing of this testimony. After study (see the investigation report), the observed phenomenon would be composed of different glowing balloons whose bright and changing colors would be attributable to LEDs located inside. These balloons, inflated with helium, would thus be carried by the East wind blowing that evening: the speed and trajectory would be consistent for a PAN/witness distance of about 300 maximum; this would also explain the absence of noise. The presence of 2 dead-end roads with very little traffic above the observation site could reasonably have been the playground for this "balloon party." Finally, it was a summer and weekend evening, favorable for festive events of this kind. GEIPAN classifies this case as B (probably identified phenomenon): LED balloons; observation of glowing balloons whose release author could not be found.