Sighting in Saint-Gervais, September 9, 1997

The witness reported three sightings over two days. On Tuesday 9 September, at about 9:30 p.m., they saw a luminous ball rise from a hill, stop for a moment, vary in brightness and then disappear. On Thursday 11 September, at about 9:30 p.m., from a different spot, they saw a ball climb above a rock, pause, move off horizontally toward the west and vanish. Half an hour later, without saying where they were, they saw another ball rise from the ground in some hills and disappear. Each time the witness described an orange luminous ball with an apparent diameter of about 8 to 10 centimetres, and noted no difference in appearance between the three.

The witness was alone: no other testimony was collected and no ground traces were found. According to the gendarmerie, the night was very clear and starry, with no wind. On 9 September, a firework display had closed a local festival in a nearby town.

GEIPAN considered four hypotheses: an escaped child's balloon, an escaped tethered balloon, a Thai lantern and an aircraft. A balloon could only fit the 9 September sighting, and a child's balloon seen from so far away seems unlikely. An aircraft does not match a single orange light with no anti-collision lights, nor the observed path. A Thai lantern fits the appearance and trajectories, but such lanterns were still rare in France in 1997, and a repeat release two days later, outside any festival, lowers the probability further. The testimony is precise about places and trajectories, except for the third sighting, but the gendarmerie did not have each sighting described separately. The case, previously classed D, is now classed C: insufficient reliable information.