Sighting in Toulon, May 29, 2018

The witness was driving home at 8:48 p.m. when they noticed a black, spherical object in the sky. It was moving slowly in a straight, horizontal line at low altitude. The witness kept it in sight all the way home, where they filmed it. The object passed over the houses and then vanished into the distance after about 6 minutes of observation. The account reached the GEIPAN in May 2020 through the Technical Questionnaire.

The case showed low strangeness and good consistency: there was only one witness, but the account was fairly precise and a video existed. The investigation concluded that the object was a balloon. The witness's description and the object's appearance on the video fit a balloon well, either spherical or elongated in shape. Its dark color points to a party balloon rather than a weather balloon, which is usually white. The object was below the cloud layer, so its altitude could not have exceeded a few hundred meters, which agrees with this explanation. Its path also matched the direction of the wind, which was blowing weakly, and this accounts for its slow movement. The object therefore had all the characteristics of something carried by the wind. The GEIPAN classified the case as A: a party balloon.