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Flying humanoid, France, 2005:

Basic indications:

Number:	FR0092
Date written:	November 6, 2005
Date received:	November 6, 2005
Date published:	November 9, 2005
Date of sighting:	October 23, 2005
Place of sighting:	France, Nancy
Original language of report:	French
Reported using:	e-mail
Unreleased information:	tThird party reporter: name, firstname, email address, phone number
Investigation, additional information:	Looked for the balloon.
Explanation:	Probably a "Dora" party balloon.

The report:

Subject: Ufo sighting
Date: November 6, 2005
From: [Name]@[eMail]

Hello,

On October 23, 2005 in Toul (54) at approximately 06:00 p.m., a friend has filmed a strange phenomenon in the sky.
It was a black human shape with a large head which moved horizontally, steadily and slowly.
It emitted no light and no sound.
It was seen in Nancy (about 25 km) .
The tape was broadcast on France 3 local.
I found the same flying shapes by visiting a website telling of flying humanoids, amon others in Mexico City in 2000;
I must remind that I am a friend of the eprson who filmed the appearance, and that I did not witness the event directly.
[Firstname] [NAME]
[Phone number]

Additional information:

By Patrick Gross, November 9, 2005.

The news "19/20" of the French TV channel France 3, local news for the Nancy area, on October 26, 2005, reported on this event.

The video was shown, here is one frame:

The video and report, including an interview of the witness and some comments, are available as of todayon the France 3 website at:

http://videojts.francetv.fr/regions/popup.php?id=b54a_1920&portail=regions&m_OAS=regions.france3.fr/lca/videojt/1920regional/lorraine&m_mmtrie=france3_regions_lca_videojt_1920regional_lorraine&rm=lca/HD_1920_nancy_cat_261005.wmv

There is no articulate reason to defend that the drifting humanoid-shaped object is not a party balloon.

Investigation:

An alien named Dora:

When viewing the TV report, I had immediately thought of a party balloon. It has been years and years that party mylar or rubber party balloons of all possible shapes and colors are lost in the sky, drift in the wind on miles and miles and are seen by witnesses who accurately report what they saw but simply do not stumble of this class of explanations, quite simply because that aren't ufologists, they did not spend years to browse through all the possible explanations for all that can be seen in the sky.

As I am a ufologist with a lack of time, and that I was as a matter of fact not very eager to spend time on a case which evoked a party balloon so much, I thought it wouldn't be too effective to search from the scratch exactly which party balloon that might have been. It appeared simpler to me to first check whether somebody somwhere had already found out.

And indeed I thus found on the webforum of "Le Journal de l'Ufologie" (www.jejdu.com) a message by a contributor who informed that his young daughter had seen the TV report and had exclaimed: "Looks like Dora the Explorer."

With such an interesting clue, all that was left to do was to find a Dora balloon.

This, I did by visiting commercial websites selling patry balloons. Mylar Dora ballons were Very quickly located, but those are no match:

But there also are Dora-shaped rubber balloons, and those are a hit:

As I can expect some grumpy comments on some alleged improbability that a Dora balloon seen on American commercial website is bought in France, I checked if this balloon can be found in France. Well, I could have bought one without problem just recently, sparing transatlatic transport charges, and at quite a bargain price, on eBay:

Alas this Dora baloon was already sold. Luckily Google's cache has some memory of it:

Does the happy purchaser reside in the surroundings of Toul? Was the baloon lost nearby? I don't know, but is it really useful to dig deeper?

So: a cheer to the young girl who solved the case. Who said that children cannot make the difference between an extraterrestrial spaceship and anything else?

To: Other sighting reports.

This page was last updated on November 19, 2005