Sighting in Saint-Cirgues, October 9, 1994

Around 9:45 a.m., a witness posted during a hunting drive watched a luminous object move silently for 25 to 30 minutes. The object was cylindrical and white, with silvery metallic reflections, and the witness also noticed blue and red lights. They followed it with their eyes until it was lost from view. They later met their brother, who said they had also seen a luminous object around 9:30 a.m., near their home. This second witness described it as cylindrical on top and semicircular underneath, reflecting the sunlight and moving across the landscape. They watched it for 30 minutes before giving up. They had themselves thought of a balloon.

The gendarmes investigated on site and drew up a site plan. GEIPAN considered the case solid, with two independent and very precise accounts.

According to GEIPAN, the metallic look, the silvery reflections and the slow, mostly horizontal movements close to the ground and within a hollow all fit a metallized Mylar-type balloon. In the morning in the mountains, the air near the ground had not yet warmed up, so the balloon drifted with very weak local currents. Once the sun heated its envelope, it could rise slowly and steadily, as the first witness described at the end of the sighting. The balloon may have been launched the previous evening from a neighbouring village, then sunk into the hollow as the night cooled. The case was reclassified B: probable sighting of a Mylar balloon.