MONTREUX (CH.VD) 01.01.2009

On 1 January 2009 at 20:00, several people on a balcony in Montreux (Switzerland) watched white lights moving on the other side of Lake Geneva. They photographed them and used a spotting scope. The unusual lights disappeared at 21:45. In daylight, using their photographs, they located the sighting precisely at the Pic de Boré, where a ski lift stands. GEIPAN initially considered headlights from a snow groomer working that evening. The witnesses later supplied the probable explanation: illuminated balloons had been used to light the ski run that evening. Although the sighting was outside France, GEIPAN published the well-documented questionnaire for information because of the nearby French border in Haute-Savoie.