BLOIS (41) 01.10.2011

On 1 October 2011 at 20:33 in Blois (41), a witness saw a luminous circular object pass silently across the sky for 30 seconds before buildings hid it. Its east-southeast-to-west-northwest direction matched the wind. However, the perfect brownish disc with a slightly luminous or paler circle at its centre did not resemble commonly observed aerostats such as sky lanterns or balloons. GEIPAN also considered its apparent speed suggestive of movement faster than the wind: the view lasted 30 seconds, whereas lantern sightings in similar conditions last at least 1 minute. The unusual object gives moderate strangeness, with relatively good evidential substance. The case is provisionally classified C because of insufficient corroboration. GEIPAN notes that this type of observation offers few investigative leads and a site visit would add little information.