The Dakar dawn 'saucer'
At 06:08 on 3 July 1952, the technical manager of the Hann broadcasting centre in Dakar, Senegal, looking south towards the city, saw a flat, tapered 'flying saucer' that seemed to be surrounded by flames move from west to east and vanish with a swoop upwards.
1952 CE · 14.69, -17.45 · status: account
The account
The report came during the great summer 1952 wave, weeks before the radar-visual sightings over Washington, D.C. Witnesses noted that it was already light enough that the stars had gone out. The CIA's Foreign Documents Division summarised the Paris-Dakar report in a digest distributed on 9 February 1953. The witness was the technical manager of the Hann broadcasting centre, who saw a flat but tapered object emitting long reddish streaks with a bluish tinge. He estimated it was about 1,500 m up and moving at two or three times the speed of the fastest planes. Paris-Dakar's own reporter thought it a meteor.
The sceptical view
A fast, flaming object at dawn fits a bright meteor (bolide) better than a craft. There is a single short report and no instrument data.