Sighting in Metz, March 30, 1981

Between 11 a.m. and 12 noon on 30 March 1981, six independent witnesses saw an object fly over several districts of the city. Four of them described it as a kind of balloon, and the other two as a sphere. The object was multicoloured and was seen moving about in the sky.

The gendarmes learned of the sighting from an article in Le Républicain Lorrain and investigated on the spot the following day. The usable testimony makes it seriously conceivable that the witnesses mistook a multicoloured festive balloon for something else. However, contradictions and imprecisions in the accounts prevent any firm conclusion.

GEIPAN regrets that the investigation was not more thorough. Angular data (the object's apparent size and its elevation above the horizon), the witnesses' exact positions, precise observation durations and a better-established chronology were all missing. Without them, the festive balloon hypothesis can be neither confirmed nor ruled out. The case, originally rated D, was re-examined and rated C: the lack of information prevented a deeper look at a hypothesis that remains plausible.