SCEAUX (92) 04.06.2023

On 4 June 2023 at 21:29, a witness at the window of his third-floor apartment in Sceaux (92) saw a dark, round shape moving fairly quickly and steadily at low height. It followed a straight line for about 1 minute before disappearing behind a building. He described flame-like features that might have been reflections from a metal structure and recorded phone video. GEIPAN considers the evidential basis good: 1 witness supplied usable video. Its appearance quickly suggested a Mylar balloon; see the investigation report and video. Identifiable landmarks in the footage allowed the path to be refined. It ran generally north to south, rather than northwest to east as the witness stated. This matches the wind direction at that time, 20°, blowing from north-northeast toward south-southwest. GEIPAN explains the apparent flames as setting sunlight reflected by a rotating, windborne Mylar balloon. Its flattened round shape with a depression explains the intermittent reflections. The witness very probably saw such a balloon about 100 m away. GEIPAN classifies the case A: very probable observation of a Mylar balloon.