Sighting in Sauvagnon, April 23, 2014
Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
Sighting on April 23, 2014 in Sauvagnon (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France). GEIPAN could not reach a conclusion for lack of sufficient information (class C).
What happened
A witness who was watching the clouds in the early afternoon noticed a white spherical shape passing silently, soon followed by several others. These small spherical objects moved below the cloud ceiling. Their appearance suggested a release of toy balloons.
The investigation looked at the weather record for Pau, very close to where the sighting took place. That day the wind shifted from the south-east at 10:00 to the north-west at 14:00, while cloud cover was increasing. At 13:30 it was fairly uncertain, mostly from the north to north-west, which is opposite to the direction in which the objects were seen moving. Flightradar24 showed no air traffic in the area.
The balloon hypothesis could therefore not be confirmed, unless the wind varied more often than the hourly record shows. Because no simultaneous information on the local wind was available, GEIPAN classified the case as C, insufficient data.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- April 23, 2014
- Location
- Sauvagnon · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- C
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2014-04-08685
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.