Tananarive green ball
- Date
- 16 Aug 1954
- Place
- Tananarive (Antananarivo), over the Avenue de la Liberation and the Queen's Palace, Madagascar
- Record
- Curated case
- Assessment
- Contested
- Evidence strength
What was reported
At about 5 pm, Air France staff in the city, including technical director Edmond Campagnac, and a large part of the population saw an 'electric green ball' descend towards the Queen's Palace, vanish behind a hill and return a minute later to fly low over the Avenue de la Liberation; Campagnac described a lens-shaped green light followed by a silvery, football-shaped body of similar size with bluish flames. Witness numbers are put at tens of thousands. Some later accounts add power failures and a formal report by the French military command; those details are not consistent across sources. A very bright bolide is the conventional reading, though the low, slow flight path described fits it poorly.
What officials concluded
No conclusion stated
No official explanation has been given.
Strongest ordinary reading
A bright green bolide (fireball); the reported low, slow pass is poorly matched
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- Yes: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Outside sources
- Patrick Gross: Tananarive 1954ufology.patrickgross.org
- The Black Vault case filetheblackvault.com
On the map
18.91° S, 47.53° E, plotted at the town or city
Show on the map