Sighting in Lurcy-Lévis, August 25, 2019

One morning, under a clear sky, a witness noticed an object moving silently. It looked like a black "wavy tube" with glints of light in places. The witness went to get a mobile phone that was close by. Dazzled by the sun, they lost sight of the object, but then found it again in the sky and photographed it. The object moved away while climbing, until it was no more than a dark dot. Only one witness account was collected.

According to the investigation, the witness most probably saw a toy solar balloon, partly deflated, rising steadily while drifting west in a light local wind of 7 to 8 km/h. The elongated shape matches that of a cylindrical "sausage" solar balloon; when only partly inflated, it can still fly but loses its rigidity and folds in on itself, which explains the wavy look. Black is the usual colour for these balloons because it absorbs solar radiation best, and the polyethylene they are made of can at times reflect sunlight, hence the glints. Measurements drawn from the testimony and the photographs gave a distance of about 880 m at the start of the sighting and about 2260 m at the end, with a possible size of 3.9 to 5.8 m, all consistent with such a balloon. Conditions for flying one were ideal: little wind, a pleasant temperature and a clear sky. It was late summer, during school holidays, and a child may have released the balloon from the aerodrome, which lay not far from the initial direction of observation.

GEIPAN classified the case as A: confusion with a partly deflated toy solar balloon.