Sighting in Saint-Genis-Pouilly, May 11, 2025

At about 10:45 in the morning, a witness watching from home saw an unidentified aerial phenomenon. The sky was completely clear. To the west, roughly 45° above the horizon, they saw a white sphere with a misty look, about as large in apparent size as Venus. It moved slowly: it first came closer to the witness, then turned toward the north, and finally headed west again before vanishing behind the treetops after about 4 minutes. The witness was alone in seeing it but managed to film it.

The investigation analysed the video. It shows an appendage beneath the sphere, visible in the parts of the footage that are in focus. It also showed that most of what struck the witness as strange came from the filming conditions: maximum digital zoom, no tripod and therefore an unsteady image, constant defocus, and extra enlargement done afterwards on a computer. In the second half of the trajectory, the object's speed matched the weak wind given by Météo France's AROME model, assuming dimensions consistent with a novelty balloon or a weather balloon.

The round shape, the appendage resembling the cable of a weather balloon or the string of a party balloon, the white colour and the movement all fit this explanation. Despite extensive searching, the type of balloon and the origin of the release (France or Switzerland) could not be determined. An amateur weather-balloon launch remains possible, since transponder signalling is not mandatory. GEIPAN classified the case as B: probably a balloon carried by the wind.