CIA Memorandum
Media reports of unidentified lights in the sky

REFERENCE: CIA/OSI "UFOs sighted, photographed in Sweden; Unidentified satellite seen", dated March 1960.

The full text, with the exception of the final paragraph, of an article on page 1 and 8 of the 8 March 1960 issue of the Stockholm daily, Dagens Nyheter, is given below. The article, which was entitled, Light in Sky New Satellite, Experts Believe, was accompanied by a photograph of the two UFOs sighted by Edde Jansson mentioned in the article.

"The luminous object which was observed shortly after 2000 hours on 6 March by the crew of the Sundsvall plane on Linjeflyg [Swedish airline], was judging from all circumstances, a hitherto unidentified satellite. The point of light was also observed from the observatory in Saltsjöbaden.

"I made the discovery just before the object disappeared below the northwest horizon, states Docent Gunnar Larsson-Leander [presumably of the observatory]. It seemed to be a satellite and I am sure that it was not a shooting star or meteor.

"Two unidentified flying objects were observed and photographed on the morning of 6 March by photographer Esse Jansson of Norrtaelb. He states that he had gone out into a field early in the morning to photograph the unidentified satellite, 1960 Alpha, which was expected to pass the Stockholm latitude in a southerly direction about 0525 hours. Between 0515 and 0527 hours he observed two objects which came from the north and were moving in a south-easterly direction. Their movement was slow but otherwise initially was not entirely unlike that of the satellites he had seen before. Suddenly, however, the direction of movement changed, and the object turned such that they were going back in the same direction they came from. On one of his plates he even caught a third luminous object of the same kind.

"It has not been possible to determine whether the observation is purely an optical illusion or not. It can be added, however, that a resident of Bromma, Thorsten Haahansson, reports that between 0528 and 0543 hours on 6 March he saw the so-called phantom satellite, 1960 Alpha, with binoculars through a window facing on the west. Bit in his case also the satellite moved a little peculiarly as seen from the observer's location; I observed the satellite in the north-northwest as it was moving in a horizontal direction ... (but) then it went straight down at a right angle and disappeared.

The sighting by the crew of the Sundsvall-bound airplane mentioned above was originally reported in Dagens Nyheter of 7 March, page 9, under the title Moving Light Phenomenon is Believed to be Satellite. The full text of the article follows.

"According to a radio report to Midlanda Airport outside Sundsvall, an unidentified luminous object, probably a satellite, was sighted from one of the Lunjeflyg's regular planes en route from Stockholm to Sundsvall.

"Air Captain Mauritz Hamrin, captain of Linjeflyg's regular evening plane to Sundsvall, said late in the evening of 6 March that, It was just after 2000 hours Swedish time that Copilot Kjell Ferm reported a bright luminous object on a generally north-westerly course. He thinks that there is hardly any great doubt that it was some form of satellite.

"Light phenomena which may originate from a satellite have also been observed over Stockholm. It was reported to Dagens Nyheter from Iidingoe that on two evenings in succession a moving point of light had been observed at 2230 hours in a south-south-westerly direction and 15 to 290 degrees above the horizon.

Unsigned