Sighting in Saint-Denis, April 4, 2009

At about 11:00, two people on foot saw a large grey, oval object under a cloudy sky. It was swaying around its axis. After roughly five minutes of watching, they saw it move off without making any noise and without leaving a trail. It then faded gradually from view toward the east.

On 10 April, the GEIPAN received a message from a journalist who had an anonymous photograph of an unidentified aerospace phenomenon, taken, according to the journalist, on 4 April at around 12:00 at Roissy. Analysis of the image confirmed that it dated from 4 April 2009, at 09:22. However, a separate inquiry showed that it had not been taken at Roissy but at Le Bourget, near taxiways W2, F3 or V2: an enlargement revealed the logo of a company that has a hangar at that airport.

The gendarmerie investigation established that on 4 April 2009 at 11:00, the Le Bourget control tower had reported an inflatable balloon shaped like a flying saucer to the north of the airfield, outside the airport zone. The device was neutralised and taken over by the territorial national police. It was a balloon 20 m in diameter, intended for an entertainment display at a sporting event at the Stade de France. The GEIPAN concluded that the witnesses saw an ovoid helium-filled balloon and classed the case A.