Sighting in La Gaude, August 16, 2013

At 13:33, three people noticed an object of metallic grey colour passing silently through the sky. Only one account was collected. The witness was looking toward the "Baou", the Baou des blancs summit, west of the commune. They saw the object travel from left to right, meaning from south to north, while gaining height. The observation lasted about 4 minutes.

This direction of travel fits with the southerly wind, which was blowing at around 18 km/h. An object simply carried by that wind would have covered a little over 1 km. Assuming a balloon 2 metres across, for example a homemade solar balloon, the geometric analysis of the photo places it at roughly 700 m. If it measured 4 m, it would have been about 1.4 km away.

GEIPAN could not determine where this balloon came from: no notable festivities were known to the south of the witness's position. It could have been an experimental object built by an amateur, or a festive object, perhaps shaped like a "1". The case was classified B: probable observation of a balloon of unknown origin.