[N145] DE SAINT-PRIEST-LA-PLAINE (23) VERS SOUTERRAINE (LA) (23) 15.09.2024

On 15 September 2024 at about 20:42, a woman driving on the N145 from Saint-Priest-la-Plaine (23) toward La Souterraine (23) saw a stationary gray point above a tree through her vehicle window. Puzzled, she photographed it before it suddenly disappeared after a few minutes. On 10 December 2024, she sent GEIPAN a Technical Questionnaire and the UAP photograph. The case has moderate evidential strength, with only 1 witness but a photograph. Under GEIPAN's criteria, evidential strength is the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively substantiated. The investigation identifies team LTU-1's gas balloon, participating in the 67th Gordon Bennett Cup. In that event, 24 balloons took off from Germany toward southern Portugal, crossing part of France. The photograph allows the witness's location and viewing direction to be determined precisely. Real-time balloon tracking records confirmed that LTU-1 was in the viewing direction at the time; see the appendix. This type of balloon is rounder than a hot-air balloon and can appear to have no basket when seen from far away. GEIPAN explains the puzzling apparent lack of movement as an optical effect caused by the witness's own motion and her distance from the balloon, which was flying at about 46 km/h. It refers to the similar case GIGNY (89), 14.09.2019. The balloon was also backlit. Its sudden disappearance could be explained by a change in the witness's position relative to it, altering the lighting conditions until it was no longer visible. GEIPAN classifies the case as A: observation of a gas balloon from the 2024 Gordon Bennett Cup.