Sighting in La Garde, August 20, 2021

The main witness was on a balcony when, at 8:18 p.m., they noticed a round, light-colored object in the sky moving in a straight, horizontal line. Their child, who was also there, had time to film a short clip on a smartphone, in which the object is visible for a few seconds.

According to GEIPAN's criteria, the case has medium consistency: there were two witnesses, but only one account was submitted to GEIPAN. The quality and short length of the video add very little to the analysis.

The investigation concluded that the object's appearance and behavior matched those of a balloon carried by the wind. Its round shape, its color and its straight, horizontal path are all consistent with this explanation. A reconstruction of the local winds, at ground level and at low altitude, also showed that the object's apparent movement was in the direction of the wind. The most likely explanation is a balloon that may have strayed from Toulon, a nearby city to the west of the observation site, or from its tourist surroundings, although the investigation could not establish exactly where it was released. GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of a balloon.