Sighting in Les Arcs, September 18, 2007
Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Sighting on September 18, 2007 in Les Arcs (Var, France). According to GEIPAN, it was most probably a balloon (class B).
What happened
A driver was puzzled by an object passing through the sky. They phoned their spouse, who was also able to see a large, oval white patch moving quickly across the sky. There were therefore two witnesses.
The gendarmerie investigated and found that no object had fallen to the ground in the area concerned. According to GEIPAN, the sighting was not very strange. The object's shape and the way it drifted with the wind (a mistral blowing from north to north-west) are typical of a balloon, which can be very bright at the end of the day. A scientific balloon released from the Haute Provence Observatory was suggested, although this was not checked. The case was classified B: probable sighting of a scientific balloon.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- September 18, 2007
- Location
- Les Arcs · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- B
- Explanation
- Balloons
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2007-09-01804
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.