Sighting in Chambley-Bussières, August 5, 2007

A large hot-air balloon gathering took place on a former military base. Thousands of people attended and took thousands of photographs. One participant noticed a suspicious spot on one of their pictures (around number 190). It did not look like an aircraft, a bird or a flaw caused by the camera. Nobody had seen anything with the naked eye when the picture was taken. The participant contacted a private investigator, and the GEIPAN only learned of the matter through media coverage, which had dubbed it "the Chambley UFO".

The private investigator collected many other photos, and the same spot appeared on a second one. One of the collected images showed many balloons at various distances and was given to a photo-analysis specialist. The study concluded that the object measured between 75 cm and 1 metre and was about 300 metres from the photographer. The hypothesis put forward was an escaped child's balloon.

In March 2008, the pilot of one of the hot-air balloons, who had seen the object, gave a statement: it was indeed a child's balloon shaped like a fish, about 80 cm long. The case was classified A (identified). The GEIPAN stressed that without the local investigator's work, the case would probably not have been studied in depth and might have remained unexplained, most likely classified C. It also noted that the case validated the photo-analysis method used.