NOUMEA (988) 07.08.2025

On 6 August 2025 at 10:25 UTC, at Nouméa-Magenta aerodrome, a taxiing pilot radioed an unidentified object directly above the runway at an estimated altitude of 150–200 feet. An air-navigation officer raised the control-tower sunshades and confirmed it first with the naked eye and then binoculars. A second technical staff member also confirmed it. The object was dark and oblong, vertically oriented, and rose slowly at constant speed. During 7–8 minutes it emitted no light or sound and showed no apparent sideways motion before finally disappearing into cloud. The case title dates it 7 August 2025, whereas the narrative gives the preceding UTC date and time. GEIPAN judges the evidential substance* moderate to good. Qualified personnel observed it professionally, corroborated by multiple tower witnesses and an approaching crew. Without usable photographs or video, the report rests entirely on their direct accounts. The perceived strangeness mainly concerns the unusual shape, vertical orientation and steady ascent without visible propulsion. A parachute was rejected because the object was rising. A drone does not fit the shape, and neither the aerodrome nor relevant services reported drone activity at the time. A balloon fits the dark oblong shape, slow mainly vertical movement, possible string below it and gradual disappearance into cloud. The aircraft crew also said it resembled a photograph of an elongated black balloon shown during the investigation. Some strangeness remains, particularly the main witness’s impression of a parachute that had failed to open and remained in a narrow streamer-like shape. Other witnesses’ matching observations and the movement nevertheless fit a balloon carried by rising air and local wind, perhaps accidentally released near the airport. Nouméa-Magenta borders Magenta public beach, making it plausible that a recreational or advertising balloon escaped nearby, drifted toward the runway axis and then rose. GEIPAN considers a dark balloon drifting upward into cloud the most probable explanation and classifies the case B: probable balloon observation. *GEIPAN defines evidential substance as the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively substantiated.