Sighting in Chanteloup-en-Brie, June 12, 2022

The witness was swimming in their pool at about 6:10 p.m. when they noticed a white light standing out against the blue sky, roughly 40° above the horizon, toward the south. It faded after about ten seconds, and the witness went back to swimming lengths. Out of curiosity, they looked in the same direction again, hoping to see something, and the light had indeed returned. They then got out of the water to fetch their mobile phone and took photographs and two videos.

The witness described the object as a very bright disc, visible on and off and, in their view, motionless in the south. After 15 to 20 minutes, growing tired of watching, they stopped observing.

GEIPAN rated the consistency of the case as good: although there was only one witness, two photographs and two videos could be analysed. The investigation retained the hypothesis of a highly reflective Mylar novelty balloon. Analysis of the photographs shows a slow, slight movement along a straight path, possibly toward the southeast, which is the direction of the wind present up to an altitude of about 1,500 m. The appearance matches that of such a balloon, whose aluminised envelope strongly reflects sunlight in an intermittent way, depending on the surface exposed and on the balloon's rotation on itself in the wind. The object's small angular size makes it impossible to determine its direction of travel with certainty or to estimate its speed precisely. The case was classified A: a Mylar novelty balloon.