Sighting in Collobrières, October 27, 2013

During a fair, the witness noticed a black object moving very slowly beneath the cloud layer and photographed it. Several other people watched the phenomenon afterwards, but only one account was collected. The witness described an object ranging from black to grey, egg-shaped, whose outline seemed to change. This suggests a balloon of complex shape turning with the wind.

The object was seen against a clear sky, which makes it look very dark whatever its real colour. Wind data from the Le Luc-Cannet des Maures station (source: Meteociel) show light, variable wind: from the east in the morning, from the north at midday, then from the west in the late afternoon. This does not quite match the movement observed, but wind is very hard to estimate in mountainous terrain when it is light.

Despite this uncertainty, the object closely resembles a balloon, probably connected to the local festival. GEIPAN therefore classified this case, which it considered of low strangeness, as category B: probable observation of a festive helium balloon.