ALLAUCH (13) 31.07.1994

GEIPAN continues to publish all its archives on www.geipan.fr, including old cases now re-examined to improve conclusions. New technical tools (software) and accumulated investigative experience sometimes lead to new observations or a classification change explained in an investigation report. This case, formerly named PLAN DE CUQUES (13) 1994 and classified D, has recently been re-examined. On 31 July 1994 at about 14:30, witnesses saw a cylindrical shape in the sky with two round metallic-coloured shapes. One saw two protrusions with flashing lights. The object moved silently in all directions at a fairly high altitude. Two witnesses reported their observations to the gendarmerie. GEIPAN finds many features favour a novelty balloon buffeted by wind aloft (see investigation report): - Direction: T1’s fairly precise geographical references allow reconstruction of a broadly south-to-north path, matching winds recorded at Marseille-Observatoire. - Motion: witnesses said, “It flew fairly slowly and turned around itself. It behaved like a dead leaf while maintaining its direction”; “It flew rapidly in all directions”; and “the object kept swaying.” This is typical of lightweight objects carried and buffeted by light wind. - Appearance: descriptions included “a cylindrical shape about the size of two vehicles, metallic-coloured, with two kinds of ears on the side. I also noticed two round ‘things,’ like car headlights”; “a more or less round metallic-coloured shape”; and “two protrusions above the object from which lights flashed.” GEIPAN connects the flashing appearance with the metallic colour. An object made partly of highly reflective material such as Mylar and partly of nonreflective material, tumbling in the wind, would reflect sunlight irregularly and appear to flash. It could therefore be a novelty beach balloon that escaped from Cassis or nearby, southward along the extension of the UAP’s path. That area’s beaches and calanques offer many summer leisure locations, especially during the day on what the source describes as a summer Saturday. No additional account was collected despite broad daylight in an inhabited area, the village of Allauch, again described as a summer Saturday. GEIPAN considers that supportive of a low-strangeness explanation such as a novelty balloon. The accounts have rather weak evidential substance. There are two, but both are very brief and the witnesses are friends rather than independent observers. GEIPAN classifies the case B: an inflatable balloon.