Sighting in Villefranche-sur-Mer, August 21, 2016

At around 11:30 p.m., a witness first saw an object enter the atmosphere and burn up. The combustion was white, with green and orange phases. A few minutes later, below that first sighting, they noticed about twenty objects grouped together, blinking at a steady rhythm and rising through the sky as a cluster. They crossed the sky without a sound. A neighbour also saw the phenomenon, but only one account was collected.

The investigation concluded that the witness saw two separate phenomena. The first was probably a small meteor entering the atmosphere. The second, which explains the strangeness the witness felt and prompted the report, was probably a release of LED balloons from a boat at sea. The balloons would have risen, and an easterly wind, confirmed by that evening's weather records, would have pushed them back toward land, producing a large procession across the sky. Such balloons can take on any colour and can blink or change colour, randomly, in a preset pattern or in sync, depending on their price. The summer season and the location lend themselves to this kind of festive event, and the witness, who did not live in the area, may have seen it for the first time. GEIPAN classified the case as B: LED balloons.