UFO-Aktuellt issue 3, 2006

Short article about UFO-Sweden's recent annual UFO-expo. This year the event took place in the Swedish city of Karlstad on 27 May, and while media showed a great deal of interest the public unfortunately chose to do the very opposite. UFO-Sweden's own exhibition could be admired by the few but devoted people who actually visited the event, and several lectures were held by some of UFO-Sweden's member.

Chairman Clas Svahn begins this issue's editorial by apologizing for the issue being delayed one month. He's just been too busy from working on two different books at the same time, and much of the editorial is devoted to his thoughts about all the great things that could be done with UFO-Sweden and ufological work in general had it only been possible to do it full-time. But time is money, as we all know much too well, and while there are tons of great things that could be done many of them will have to wait or be cancelled altogether. Ufological research seldom or never results in a paycheck, and regardless of how devoted you are; the rent still has to be paid at the end of every month. Svahn also mentions how The Archive for UFO Research recently was given a grant, which allowed for the purchase of some much needed shelves.

Article by Svahn, where he meets and interviews Thure Backteman, who had an intense UFO sighting back in 1962. Backteman is now 96 years old, but still remembers the event very well. It was when he one afternoon sometime during the fall of 1962, when he and his fellow workers were on their way home from the local power plant where they all worked, that they suddenly sighted an intense, blue light in the sky. They followed the light for some time, only to suddenly realize that a large object was hovering above them, about 70 meters up. However, it didn't have a traditional saucer-shape. Instead it had a shape much like the anti-aircraft balloons Backteman had seen during WWII. The experience was quite intense, and he never talked about it in public until 2003.

Short article about a picture taken with a digital camera and sent to UFO-Sweden. Two small objects, resembling tiny bubbles, can be seen on the picture. However, as is often the case the objects weren't seen by the photographer when the picture was taken. The article is accompanied by the picture in question, and UFO-Sweden is still in the process of trying to figure out what they are.

Stefan Roslund has fourteen short news about the international UFO, and forteana, scene. Among other things, Roslund mentions Russian UFO sightings, the passing of ufologist Karl Pflock, a UFO that landed in Israel, Mexican UFO organization OMIFO (Organizacion Mexicana de Investigadores del Fenomeno Ovni), the 50th birthday of UFO Encounter magazine, and the Tunguska incident.

Short article by Svahn, accompanied by a quite vivid picture taken by the wife of José Eduardo Zappi. On 23 April, 2006, José partook in a hang-gliding competition at Mt. Piripau in Brazil, during which a strange object was seen in the sky for less than half a minute. The only known picture was taken by Josés wife, whose name has not been revealed. The picture is quite intense, and the answer to what the object really is remains unknown.

Article by Anders Liljegren, co-founder of the in the editorial mentioned Archive for UFO Research (http://www.afu.info). The Archive recently received an official grant of 82000 SEK (about $11700). This is, obviously, exciting news. Not only because the money was much needed, but also because it certainly boosted the morale of everyone involved with the Archive and other UFO-Sweden related work. Some people are sure to be upset about governmental money being used this way, but as numerous folklorists, historians, and other social scientists (as well as influential ufologists) have assured again and again over the years; the Archive is an extremely important institution doing work that must not be neglected.

In April, 2006, Peruvian contactee Sixto Paz Wells visited Stockholm for the first time and gave a few lectures. Agneta Halldén attended one of them and has written an article about the man, his lecture, and his stories. He was born in 1955 in Lima, Peru, and had his first extraterrestrial contact in 1974 when he was seventeen years old. The extraterrestrial presented himself as Oxalc, from one of Jupiter’s moons. Over the years Paz Wells has had several other very close encounters, but just like Halldén points out in her article; his stories don’t differ very much from other traditional contactee-stories. Furthermore, much of his “evidence” isn’t very good evidence at all, using as he does things that even Erich von Däniken has refuted. Various contactees have come and gone since the birth of the modern UFO phenomenon, and so it’s probably quite sure to assume that Paz Wells isn’t going to be the last one. Page 11 also has an ad for older issues of UFO-Aktuellt.

C. Göran Norlén gives a review of news clippings from Swedish media, this time from the middle of April to the end of June, 2006. As always, there have been both very good and very bad things said in Swedish media about the UFO phenomenon, and as always, Norlén isn’t afraid to speak his mind. In this issue he devoted a few paragraphs to the necessity of serious, scientific UFO research, even though many people find this approach less exciting. Which is very true. And also quite sad.

Article by David Clarke (translated by Svahn), about two UFO sightings, the first on 14 August, 1950 and the second about one month later, by British test pilot Stan Hubbard. In April, 2002, Clarke – ufologist and professor of journalism – interviewed Hubbard over the phone. None of the events became known by the public until fifty years after they’d taken place, when Clarke succeeded in having some declassified reports handed to him by the British Defense Department. The story told by Hubbard is quite fascinating, and definitely worth reading.

Article by Svahn, about many of the great bolides that have lit up the skies over Scandinavia for the last six months. Obviously, whenever these quite natural phenomena appear there’s an increase in UFO sightings. Not to wonder, though, since a bolide can look very spectacular.

UFO-Sweden’s expert on fortean phenomena, Richard Svensson, writes (and as always, draws beautiful pictures) about bizarre things, not necessarily UFO related. This time Svensson talks about giant worms in the Gobi desert, described by paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews in his book On the Trail of Ancient Man. However, no specimen has been found that is able to prove the actual existence of these giant worms. But they sure make for some good reading. Svensson also mentions the Maine Monster Mystery and expeditions to New Guinea, among other things.

Article by Jörgen Andersson, an amateur astronomer, about what first started out as a genuine – and very tricky – UFO case. One early November morning in 1999, Andersson sighted three lights, shaped like a perfect triangle, cruising across the morning sky. Obviously this puzzled him; being an amateur astronomer he of all people knows how to look at the sky and what one may expect to see, and at the time of the sighting he’d been studying the skies for sixteen years but never seen anything quite like this. However, he soon realized what it was he’d seen. It was actually a group of satellites, flying in formation! The satellites belonged to an American military operation called “White Cloud NOSS”, the latter being short for Naval Ocean Surveillance System, and the purpose of the operation was to monitor the oceans of the world.

A few ads featuring different UFO-Sweden products, as well as Svahn’s latest book Det okända (English: The Unknown), unfortunately available only in Swedish.

Article by Svahn, about Ragnar Birgersson, long-time member of UFO-Sweden and highly skilled model-maker. Birgersson has, just like many other people with an interest in UFOs, a fascination with space, and has spent thousands of hours creating an impressive number of different spacecraft-models. His collections has never, however, been put on permanent display, but he hopes this will happen some day. The models aren’t the only thing related to space and spacetravel that Birgersson collects, though. He also possesses, among other things, over 2000 stamps with these motives, along with numerous news-clippings and other items. Page 27 also has three short stories with various news.

Strange things are indeed happening in the skies over Sweden. The Report Central runt by UFO-Sweden receive several hundred reports annually, and in this issue three Swedish cases, all from 2006, are presented, as well as an Australian one from 2004. Page 29 also has a short article of a UFO that turned out to be, with almost complete certainty, a Swedish Jas Gripen military airplane.

A picture of all the participants (except one) from this year’s field investigator class, held annually by UFO-Sweden.

Article by Svahn, where he describes a certain part of this year’s training for future field investigators. The focus of the training was UFO-Sweden’s new and improved report database, which when completed will have about 18000 reports. But people who are going to use it must learn how it works, and thus UFO-Sweden’s own computer wiz and webmaster Mikael Sjöberg taught the participants how to use it correctly. The article also mentions some of the other activities held during the weekend.

Article by Svahn, accompanied by several pictures in color, about Swedish crop circles. Or more precise, the lack of the this past summer. Not very many were reported, but it wasn’t in Sweden only that this was the case. In countries all over the world fewer and fewer circles are reported, so it seems the hysteria surrounding them is slowly disappearing.