VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER (06) 23.07.2021

At 10:14 on 23 July 2021, a mother and daughter on a beach in Villefranche-sur-Mer (06) saw a dark, slightly oval UAP with leg-like projections moving silently in a clear sky. Its slow movement was initially horizontal; it then seemed to hover before climbing and disappearing into the sky. One of them recorded video on a phone. Only 1 account was collected. GEIPAN found the video suggestive of a novelty or Mylar balloon; see the attached video. The reported horizontal direction was too imprecise for comparison with the wind, but the video did not warrant a specialised AROME weather request. The source defines AROME as Météo-France's operational fine-resolution numerical weather forecasting model. Video analysis favoured a helium-filled party balloon or Mylar balloon. The witness described a black, somewhat oval object with legs, like a spider with its legs folded. Slight horizontal and substantial vertical movement were consistent with such an object. With little residual strangeness, GEIPAN decided against a detailed wind study and classified the case B: probable misidentification of a party balloon. The source refers to the articles “GEIPAN: What did I see? A balloon” and “Sky misidentifications: novelty balloon”.