Sighting in Sainghin-en-Weppes, September 7, 2024

In the early evening, two witnesses, a father and their son, were at home when they noticed a black, circular object resembling a donut above the houses across the street. One of them filmed it with a mobile phone. The object drifted from east to west while rotating, and the rotations did not appear to be related to aerodynamic conditions. A second object, triangular and shaped like a "V", then appeared. The witness tried to film it, but a handling error meant the first seconds of the recording were lost, and only the footage of the object moving away was kept. When the witness's spouse came home, they reported that their brother had also seen the first object pass over his own home.

GEIPAN rated the case's consistency as good: the testimony is a single account, but there were several witnesses and two videos. The strangeness level was low. The investigation concluded that the witnesses had seen letter-shaped balloons, of the kind used at weddings or birthdays. The description and appearance fit this strongly, the sighting took place on a Saturday in the early evening, and the apparent paths of the two objects were consistent with the wind direction. The exact origin of the balloon release could not be determined. GEIPAN classified the case as A: sighting of festive balloons.