Sighting in Le Cannet, July 29, 2017

Around 5:30 p.m., four people watched four very bright points moving quickly across a clear sky, first with the naked eye and then through binoculars. The objects intrigued them greatly, and they took many photos. The sighting lasted about 13 minutes. Some of the objects then vanished abruptly, while others were lost from view behind trees. Only one witness account was collected.

The investigation concluded that all the objective data fitted festive balloons carried by the wind, and the photos helped clarify how the sighting unfolded. Their strong brightness is explained by a Mylar-type surface, which reflects sunlight well. The sudden disappearances are also explained by this mirror-like surface: when clouds from the west briefly hid the sun, a balloon became less luminous and could no longer be made out against a very bright sky, which dazzled the witnesses. As for the high apparent speed, the photos allow an estimate of the real speed under this hypothesis, and it falls within the range of the wind gusts at that time. The main witness assumed, without having seen it, that one object had travelled a long distance, but since the observation was not continuous, two different balloons could have been involved, as such balloons are often released in groups. GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of Mylar balloons.