Sighting in Houilles, August 23, 2018

In the early evening, two witnesses, a couple on their terrace, noticed a black, round object moving from the northwest toward the southeast, in the direction of La Défense. It seemed fairly high in the sky, but they could not estimate its distance. The object moved fairly fast and took a little over a minute to reach La Défense. It flew silently along a straight path and sometimes seemed to spin on itself without its course changing. The witnesses had recently had a drone fly over them twice; they compared the two, but felt this object was different. They took no photo.

GEIPAN considered the case fairly consistent, with two witnesses. The investigation concluded that the witnesses very probably saw a balloon. The description, with a rectangular or elongated round shape, fits a balloon quite well. The black or dark colour is explained by the sunset, which put the object against the light. The red light glimpsed briefly may have been a temporary reflection of the sunset glow on the balloon's envelope. The trajectory was also very consistent with the wind direction. The case is classified A.