Sighting in Bailleul, June 15, 2022

At around 7:08 pm, the witness was sitting in their garden when they noticed something bright in the sky. They did not recognise its shape, so they filmed it with their phone, zooming in. The object was moving slowly. The witness watched it for four to five minutes. As it vanished into the distance, they had the impression that its path changed. The witness ruled out an aircraft, a helicopter, a weather balloon or a drone, and wanted to know what they had seen. Theirs was the only account collected.

The investigation concluded that the witness had very probably seen a mylar balloon, possibly a child's balloon that had been lost. Two points support this: the shape and colour described, and a direction of travel matching the direction of the wind. The brightness that caught the witness's eye is fully consistent with sunlight reflecting off the balloon's aluminised surface. The change of direction seen at the end of its path can be explained by strong gusts of wind. GEIPAN classified the case as A: a mylar balloon carried by the wind and lit by the sun.