Sighting in Saint-Martin-de-Crau, August 24, 1980

At about 8 p.m., two witnesses in their garden noticed an object in the sky. They described it as bowl-shaped and the colour of "polished aluminium". Its upper part seemed to oscillate, while the lower part seemed to stay still.

The object first descended vertically, then more slowly, heading toward a field after crossing the RN113 road. It then went off northward on a horizontal path, and the witness lost sight of it. No noise or smoke was noticed. The gendarmerie collected no other testimony, and its on-site investigation found nothing of note, since the object never landed.

GEIPAN pointed out that the movement followed the direction of the wind, which suggests a balloon, possibly a Mylar one. Mylar balloons already existed at the time, and the material could explain the polished-aluminium look. However, the shape described was fairly complex and included unusual features, and the sketches were drawn by the gendarmes rather than the witnesses, so it was impossible to tell what kind of balloon it might have been. Angular measurements, a drawing by the witnesses, angular heights at the start, middle and end of the sighting, and a precise colour reading would have been needed. Because these were missing and the testimony lacked consistency, the case was classified C: insufficient data.