Sighting in Saint-Medars-d'Eyrans, June 14, 2021

The witness was driving on the A62 motorway between Bordeaux and Toulouse when a very bright light in the sky caught their eye, sometime between 7:10 and 7:20 a.m. Within five to ten seconds the brightness faded, revealing a metallic grey sphere that seemed motionless. The witness then lost sight of it, after an observation estimated at 20 to 30 seconds in total. There is only one account and no photograph.

The GEIPAN rated the strangeness and consistency of the case as medium. The investigation ruled out a weather balloon, which the witness had suggested, since none was in flight in the region at that time. An aircraft was ruled out too, because no plane other than the one the witness had already seen was in the area. The description does, however, fit a novelty balloon very well, possibly made of Mylar, a highly reflective aluminised material: a spherical shape, an intense brightness that fades, and a metallic grey colour. The Sun was rising in the east-northeast while the object was toward the southeast, so a strong reflection is plausible, one that could have weakened as the alignment between the Sun, the witness and the balloon became less favourable. The witness's fast movement along the motorway and the parallax effect made it impossible to judge any motion of the object, so it cannot be said whether it was drifting with the wind. Helium balloons can stay aloft for several days and travel long distances, but the investigation could not establish where this one might have been released.

The case is classed B: probably a novelty balloon.