An account in Alpes-Maritimes, France

On August 16, 2013 at 1:33 PM, three people were intrigued by the silent passage of a gray-metallic object in the sky. Only one testimony was collected. According to the statements of the witness who was observing in the direction of the "Baou" (the Baou des Blancs summit) located west of La Gaude, he saw the object fly from his left to his right, therefore from south to north; he saw it rise. The observation lasted about 4 minutes. This direction of movement is consistent with the south wind blowing at about 18 km/h. If it is an object carried by the wind, it would have traveled a little over 1 km. If one takes the hypothesis of a 2-meter balloon (e.g., a homemade solar balloon, Solar balloon flights), the geometric analysis of the photo places it at about 700m (see diagram). It could also be 4m and be at 1.4 km. The origin of this balloon could not be determined by GEIPAN: no notable celebrations in the southern environment of the witness. It could be an experimental object made by an amateur, or a festive object (one can imagine the shape of a "1"). GEIPAN classifies this case "B": probable observation of a balloon of unknown origin.

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This is an official case file of GEIPAN, the French space agency's unidentified aerospace phenomena office, machine translated from French. The original text and the full investigation file are at geipan.fr. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request.