Scandinavian ghost rockets

This  serie of cases first  happened February 26, 1946. "Scandinavian ghost rocket case"still one of most eyewitnessed cases in historyand one of most unexplained.  Fist report was made my Finnish observers.   Later  was notices in the sky of  Sweden, Denmark, Norway.  People had see lights in the form of coils or cigars. In June, witnesses in Finland witnessed a bright light, leaving a smoky trace in the air. At first, everyone decided that it was a meteorite, but then a second such object was seen, which made a turn in the air and flew to where it came from. Many saw the lights in other parts of Europe make dead loops, soared vertically up, dived down and performed other figures of aerial acrobatics.  In hundreds of reports, they are basically described as objects with long flaming tails that emit a quiet buzz and fly at high altitude at a speed of about 640 km / h and more. 

About 2,000 sightings were logged between May and December 1946, with peaks on 9 and 11 August 1946. Two hundred sightings were verified with radar returns, and authorities recovered physical fragments which were attributed to ghost rockets. Investigations concluded that many ghost rocket sightings were probably caused by meteors.  For example, the peaks of the sightings, on the 9 and 11 August 1946, also fall within the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower. . However, most ghost rocket sightings did not occur during meteor shower activity, and furthermore displayed characteristics inconsistent with meteors, such as reported maneuverability.

In August, a pilot of the Swedish Air Force noticed an object in the form of a torpedo. He said that he saw him very closely, about a kilometer away from himself, and did not notice any signs of an ordinary plane. The pilot started the pursuit, but the "rocket" was flying at such a speed that a conventional bomber could not keep up with it. The Swedish government took the pilot's license seriously, as a result of which an investigation committee was established.  The Swedish government took the pilot's testimony seriously, as a result of which an investigation committee was established. Many members of the commission believed that, perhaps, the Soviet Union had seized secret German weapons after the victory in World War II and now sends guided missiles to Europe for intimidation. The American and British governments showed interest, but the theory turned out to be wrong.

After 1946, objects began to appear less often, but they, nevertheless, were noticed for several more years. So what was that? The Swedish government has not found any weighty evidence in support of the theory of UFOs or Russian missiles. In the end, the committee decided that most incidents were either meteorites or human imaginations.

Although the official opinion of the Swedish and U.S. Military remains unclear, a Top Secret USAFE (United States Air Force Europe) document from 4 November 1948 (at right), indicates that at least some investigators believed the ghost rockets and later "flying saucers" had extraterrestrial origins. Declassified only in 1997, the document states: 

"For some time we have been concerned by the recurring reports on flying saucers. They periodically continue to pop up; during the last week, one was observed hovering over Neubibierg  Air Base for about thirty minutes. They have been reported by so many sources and from such a variety of places that we are convinced that they cannot be disregarded and must be explained on some basis which is perhaps slightly beyond the scope of our present intelligence thinking.

"When officers of this Directorate recently visited the Swedish Air Intelligence Service, this question was put to the Swedes. Their answer was that some reliable and fully technically qualified people have reached the conclusion that 'these phenomena are obviously the result of a high technical skill which cannot be credited to any presently known culture on earth'. They are therefore assuming that these objects originate from some previously unknown or unidentified technology, possibly outside the earth".

The document also mentioned a flying saucer crash search in a Swedish lake conducted by a Swedish naval salvage team, with the discovery of a previously unknown crater on the lake floor believed caused by the object (possibly referencing the Lake Kölmjärv search for a ghost rocket discussed above, though the date is unclear). The document ends with the statement that "we are inclined not to discredit entirely this somewhat spectacular theory [extraterrestrial origins], meantime keeping an open mind on the subject".

The "ghost rocket" reports were not confined to Scandinavian countries. Similar objects were soon reported early the following month by British Army units in Greece, especially around Thessaloniki. In an interview on September 5, 1946, the Greek Prime Minister, Konstantinis Tsaldaris , likewise reported a number of projectiles had been seen over Macedonia and Thessaloniki on September 1. In mid-September, they were also seen inPortugal and then inBelgium and Italy.

The Greek government conducted their own investigation, with their leading scientist, physicist Dr.Paul Santorinis, in charge. Santorinis had been a developer of the proximity fuzeon the first A-bomb  and held patents on guidance systems for Nike  misseles and radar systems. Santorinis was supplied by the Greek Army with a team of engineers to investigate what again were believed to be Russian missiles flying over Greece.

In a 1967 lecture to the Greek Astronomical Society, broadcast on Athens Radio, Santorinis first publicly revealed what had been found in his 1947 investigation. "We soon established that they were not missiles. But, before we could do any more, the Army, after conferring with foreign officials (presumably U.S. Defense Dept.), ordered the investigation stopped. Foreign scientists [from Washington] flew to Greece for secret talks with me". Later Santorinis told UFO researchers such as Raymond Fowler that secrecy was invoked because officials were afraid to admit of a superior technology against which we have "no possibility of defense". 

UFO-Sweden have conducted an extensive investigation into the latest Ghost Rocket sighting at a lake in the far north of Sweden both in 2012 and 2014. During their search they have located a crater using a side scanning sonar and ground penetrating radar as well as unusual reading from a magnetometer. UFO-Sweden are currently planning a third trip during the winter months while the lake is still frozen, this time in an attempt to verify or dispel previous readings.