ARCS (LES) (83) 18.09.2007

On 18 September 2007, a woman driving noticed an intriguing object passing across the sky. She phoned her husband, who also saw a large, white, oval patch moving rapidly. According to the gendarmerie investigation, no object fell to the ground in the indicated area. GEIPAN assessed the sighting as having low strangeness. The object's shape and movement with the Mistral, from north to northwest, were characteristic of a balloon, which can be very bright late in the day. A scientific balloon released from the Observatoire de Haute Provence was suggested, but this was not checked. The case was classified B as a probable scientific balloon sighting.