AVOLSHEIM (67) 02.08.2015

At about 02:25 during the night of Saturday 1 to Sunday 2 August 2015, a witness in a bedroom in Avolsheim (67) saw 10–20 white “balls” in the clear sky. They twinkled and “moved very slightly in place.” Their positions relative to one another also changed, but they remained grouped. The witness watched both with the naked eye and through binoculars. Magnified through binoculars, they resembled flashing lights and shone bright white. The witness stopped watching at about 03:00 to go to bed and reported the sighting on 18 September 2016. No other account was received. The evidence is weak, with only 1 witness and no photographs or video (see the investigation report). GEIPAN defines evidential consistency as the amount of information in an account considered reliable and objectively supported. The analysis suggests a group of LED-lit balloons, for these reasons: - They appeared point-like to the naked eye and spherical through binoculars, with a halo probably corresponding to the balloon envelope. - White is a common LED-balloon color, and some models can flash. - The weather favored a balloon release: little or no wind and no clouds. - A summer weekend night was also a suitable occasion. - Light, probably variable winds, including aloft, explain why the UAPs seemed stationary throughout the roughly 35-minute observation. They could still be buffeted and shift relative to one another while remaining in the same general area. The case is classified B: probable LED-lit balloons.