Sighting in Palaiseau, February 17, 2022

Between 6:00 and 6:30 am, the witness was taking a break in a north-facing garden when they noticed a luminous object, pale yellow with a bluish tint. It moved from west to east along a slightly descending path. It appeared to be behind an airliner that was on its landing approach. The object then sped up, passed the aircraft and vanished level with the plane's left wing. The whole sighting lasted only two seconds. The witness put the object's size at about one fifteenth that of the aircraft, without saying how they had arrived at that estimate. There was no trail and no sound.

This was the only account collected, with no photo or video, so the GEIPAN rated the case as having medium consistency. Because the aircraft could not be identified, the distance from the witness to the plane, and to the object, remains unknown, and the apparent alignment may have been purely optical. According to the analysis, the witness most likely saw an LED balloon carried by the wind, based on its round shape, its color and brightness, its straight path in the direction of the prevailing wind, and the absence of a trail or noise. The acceleration could have been caused by a brief gust, and the disappearance by the balloon breaking up. Since little usable data existed on size and distance, the GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable LED balloon.