UFO seen by two pilots in Orange in 1951

Summary

On June 15, 1951, two French pilots from the Orange-Caritat air base spotted an unidentified object in the sky. At 11:30 AM, one of them noticed a bright, circular or spherical object hovering at an altitude of 10,000 feet. The pilot alerted his superior, who also observed it. The object appeared to be located in the direction of the Pelvoux massif, at the same height as the aircraft. As the pilots followed it, the object began to grow in size and took on an elongated shape, moving along a slightly ascending trajectory. The observation lasted about six minutes until the object disappeared on the horizon. The investigation at the time confirmed the credibility of the witnesses, though it suggested it could have been a stratospheric balloon. However, the object's rapid distancing when the pilots tried to approach made this hypothesis incompatible. The GEIPAN classified it as D1: strange unidentified phenomenon.