Sighting in Biscarrosse, August 20, 2024

While on holiday, the witness was on a lakeside beach with their family. Lying down and looking at the sky toward the opposite shore, they noticed an object on the horizon at about 1:30 pm. They described it as spherical and metallic in appearance, moving from right to left at a steady, fairly high speed. It stayed in view for roughly 20 seconds before disappearing in the sky above the far shore. The witness was the only person to see it and could not manage to film it, so the GEIPAN rated the case's consistency as medium.

An aeronautical check with the CAPCODA found no flight matching the trajectory the witness described.

The investigation settled on the hypothesis of an object carried by the wind, such as a Mylar balloon. The spherical shape and metallic colour are typical of such a balloon. The sighting took place in summer, near beaches where a balloon could have been lost. The movement was straight and horizontal, in the direction of the prevailing wind. Its path was fairly oblique to the witness's line of sight, which explains why they lost sight of it quickly on their left. The GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of a Mylar balloon carried by the wind.