Sighting in Albi, July 18, 2010

Starting at around 5 p.m., a witness saw a group of about ten round, opaque white objects moving across the sky, in several successive sightings. No particular noise was heard, and there was no trail or halo. The witness put the objects at a distance of at least 1,500 meters. The observation lasted about 40 minutes. Two children also saw the phenomenon.

GEIPAN's investigation found that these features match a well-known and frequently observed phenomenon: festive balloons drifting by. The sighting took place in daylight, in July, a festive season, and lasted a long time. The same objects came back several times, they were opaque white spheres, silent, moving in a straight line in the same direction, and appeared as tiny as a pinhead. The wind blowing from northwest to southeast was roughly consistent with their movement. Nothing strange was noted in the observation. The case has low consistency because it rests on a single testimony, even though many people must have been outdoors at the time. The explanation of festive (latex) balloons was accepted, and the case was classified B, very probably explained.