Danané light reported to the governor
In mid-September 1954, a luminous point with a halo was watched for about half an hour over Danané, in western Côte d'Ivoire, by the local administrator, a gendarmerie commander, the chief doctor and a missionary priest.
1954 CE · 7.26, -8.15 · status: account
The account
The subdivision chief, Mr Vernhet, sent an official report to the governor. Witnesses said the light grew rapidly, moved toward the horizon and appeared to switch on a beam pointing up and down. French newspapers ran the story in early October 1954, at the height of that year's French wave. Press accounts give the date as 15 or 19 September.
The sceptical view
A slow-moving light watched for 30 minutes low in the evening sky is a classic description of a bright planet or star distorted by the atmosphere; nothing in the account rules that out.