SCHOELCHER (972) 12.11.2017

At 17:15 local time on 12 November 2017, a witness at home in Schœlcher (972) saw a very bright, opaque white ovoid object overhead. He used binoculars in the clear sky and thought it was a weather balloon, but was surprised by its almost stationary position. No unusual sound was heard. He and a gendarmerie patrol watched until 18:15, before it moved east. He took a photograph, but its original file was not sent to GEIPAN. Only 1 account was collected. Both the witness and gendarmes thought of a weather balloon. Checks with the Le Lamentin air transport gendarmerie and consultation of Flight Radar identified a balloon deployed over Puerto Rico and carried towards Martinique by upper winds. GEIPAN explains that these balloons belonged to Project Loon, which used high-altitude balloons to provide internet access in disaster-stricken or hard-to-reach areas. Following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in September 2017, a fleet was deployed to restore basic phone connectivity for residents cut off when cellular antennas were destroyed. GEIPAN classified the case A: a stratospheric balloon from Puerto Rico carried towards Martinique by winds aloft.