The Ghost Rockets documentary centers on the key premise of curiosity and the universal human desire to explore and explain the unknown. We follow the members of an organization called UFO-Sweden as they attempt to solve a mystery that has baffled even the Swedish government, the Ghost Rockets. The documentary will weave together an ambitious UFO-investigation with a personal story that gives rare insight into the hearts and minds of a UFO-investigator. The Ghost Rockets project includes a fully funded transmedia project that invites the audience to collaborate in an online investigation into a previously classified military archive. 

Ghost Rockets centers on human desire to explore and explain the unknown. The film weaves together an ambitious UFO investigation with a personal story that gives a rare insight into the hearts and minds of a UFO-investigator.

Every year, the organization UFOSweden receives numerous reports about inexplicable occurrences usually dismissed as having to do with the moon, airplanes, satellites or mental instability on the part of the witness. Sometimes, though, they get a report that they are unable to explain, one of them being the story of the ghost rocket. Under the leadership of journalist Clas Svahn, the organisation starts a costly expedition trying to find the strange craft. Its thrilling premise notwithstanding, Ghost rockets is not primarily a film about UFOs. It is a film about enthusiasts with a fervent interest, about an organisation struggling with their finances and shrinking membership numbers, about annual meetings over coffee and pastry, about existential issues debated in the summer night and about our need to believe that the world is bigger than we think. 

A research team set off for northern Sweden on Thursday to get to the bottom a "Ghost Rocket" sighting from 1980 that has been labelled as "the biggest UFO mystery in the world" and which the Swedish military kept classified for years. 

The expedition leader and head of UFO-Sweden, Clas Svahn, set off on the trip to Jokkmokk, far northern Sweden on Thursday together with a support team, divers, a film crew, and the original witness who watched the craft land in the water. 

"I expect to be surprised," Svahn told The Local, explaining that while he is not a "believer", he hopes that the trip can provide answers. 

"People mistake UFOs with flying saucers. There are many, many reports of strange things in the air, but what we're interested in is explaining what they are. Every answer is a good answer." 

The craft the team is looking for was seen crash-landing in the south end of a lake in Muddus, back on July 31st, 1980. 

The witnesses, Bo and Liz Berg, watched as the "elongated, cigar shaped object with two protrusions on its sides" came whizzing by them, turned 180 degrees, and performed a controlled landing in the water, disappearing in a spray of bubbles. 

The description of the object led the research team to conclude it was a so-called Ghost Rocket - a spacecraft that has long held captured the attention of both UFO investigators and the military alike. 

Since 1946, witnesses have reported nearly 20,000 unidentified objects in the skies over Sweden, with 1,000 alone in 1946. 

According to the UFO Sweden homepage, the sheer number of these reports caused the Swedish military to send out research teams. The rockets were at first believed to be Russian tests of V-1 or V-2 missiles captured from the Germans during World War Two. 

However, since no fragments have ever been found, the Swedish, British and US military failed to find an explanation. The only concrete evidence the military found was occasional craters in the lake bottoms and damaged aquatic plants. 

But Svahn believes that where the military failed, his team may succeed. 

He confesses that he has long been interested in UFOs and has been compelled to find out more about them since he was a teenager in the seventies. 

And while he admits that he is unsure exactly what the Ghost Rocket may be, Svahn is confident that it is made of steel, and that the landing described by the witnesses suggests that the object was being controlled. 

"Someone was sitting somewhere," he told The Local. 

"Even better, this is the only occasion we've heard of where the object landed rather than crashed. There's a very real chance that we may find it intact." 

The team will begin diving with a host of professional equipment on Friday and will continue their search until Monday. 

Meanwhile, a film crew accompanying the expedition is making a documentary about the exploration, which has caught the attention of an international audience and fan base. 

However, regardless of the film crew, Svahn explains that the sky is the limit when it comes to the possibilities if something is indeed found at the bottom of the lake. 

"There are many more sightings in Sweden that match the Ghost Rockets description. If we find what we're looking for this weekend, we'll be investigating the other cases as well."

July 19, 1946; Lake Kolmjarv, Sweden

11:45 a.m. Knut Lindbäck (38) and his maid Beda Persson (18) were involved in hay-making. Both were working by the leaning shores of Lake Kölmjärv. It was almost noon, and the sun was broiling hot. All of a sudden a humming sound was heard from the sky.  Knut looked up since he thought it was an airplane. Instead, he spotted a rocket-like device diving towards the lake. 

In the company of Beda he watched the two meters long, ashen-gray projectile falling into the water about 1.5 km away, near the south-western shore of the lake. A tall column of water emerged and was soon followed by yet another cascade.  That it was a solid object of that he was sure. The object was two meters long and had a snub nose, while the stern was pointed. He thought there were a few small wing-like protrusions on the side, but he wasn't sure. Everything happened so quickly. The length of the water pillar was "a few meters" according to the first newswire report cabled to all Swedish newspapers. From contemporary news items it is further evident that there was no light on, or from, the object. The Swedish news agency TT reported that the two prime witnesses had heard no explosions, however, Lindbäck told Dagens Nyheter that "there was a smashing sound, but this was probably from the water thrown up." The magnitude of the crash is underlined, however, by yet another witness (located in 1984) who was standing by the northern shore of the lake, just a couple of hundred meters from the site of impact. Frideborg Tagebo, 14 years old in 1946, remembers everything clearly.[See more detailed report below] (Carl Feindt) 

Source: Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “The Kölmjärv Ghost Rocket Crash Revisited,” AFU Newsletter 27, pp. 1-5. AFU’s website: <http://www.afu.info/>http://www.afu.info/

Missile That Followed the Power-lines

Three days later, on August 18, 1985, a similar encounter happened in Sweden. Four civilian pilots were flying a Cessna on a southerly course along the Swedish east coast, near Söderhamn, when they discovered a missile like object, some six meters long, on a counter course. "We were flying on about 1.000 meters between  Umeå and Gävle when one of us suddenly spotted something glistening in the sun over the woods in front of us," says Per Lundqvist, who piloted the aircraft.

"Coming closer we saw that it was a metallic missile with steering fins at the back. Now and then it changed it's course according to the terrain and I interpreted this as if it was following the power lines below us.

"Since we had become curious I dived down towards the missile and turned our plane to try to follow, but this was impossible. We simply didn't have the engine power to compete with the object. It disappeared from us at an altitude of a few hundred meters."

The four pilots reported the incident to the military who attempted, in vain, for a six month period to identify the object. However, no one from the defense authorities made direct contact with the pilots after their first report. [8] This kind of non-interest in the violation of Swedish air by unknown aerial objects (as compared to the military high-level interest in the recent wave of Swedish submarine violations) is typical, yet strange

Close Encounters With Unknown Missiles

by Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren - AFU Newsletter #37, Jan. '92 - Dec '93

On several occasions civilian aircraft with hundreds of passengers have encountered unknown cigar- or missile-shaped objects. A few unexplained collisions in the air have resulted in the loss of human life.AFU Newsletter reviews a dozen incidents from the last decade. In a recent Interview with Clas Svahn an Alitalia pilot confirmed, in detail, his sighting report to British authorities.

Some of the incidents we will be reporting are not known to a wide audience. No one (outside of the intelligence community?) seems to have mapped the full picture. There seems to be a recurring pattern behind these incidents. In some cases authorities have actively covered-up what has happened. One must presume that military organizations try to conceal that they mistakenly have nearly hit - or sometimes even shot down - civilian aircraft.

All indications point to the reported cases being just a tip of an iceberg. More incidents probably lurk behind the surface, never being reported.

At 20.56 hours on June 27, 1980, an Italian DC-9 from the Itavia company was on a flight from Bologna to Palermo on Sicily. Suddenly the tower at Ciampino near Rome lost contact with the plane which, seemingly without reason, dived into the Mediterranean killing all 81 on board. The next day some remains of the plane were found near the island (of) Ustica while the main body had sunk to a depth of 3,500 meters. An investigation of some of the dead bodies found at sea, pointed to some kind of external explosion or outside impact as the cause. Fragments from the undercarriage were found in the dead bodies which speaks against the theory of an explosion within the aircraft.

Analysis of metallic fragments convinced the investigation committee that the DC-9 was shot down by a military missile. Remains of phosphorus, common in missiles, were found in the bodies.

An anonymous military source, who contacted an Italian journalist the same night, claimed that the plane was hit by a missile. At a senatory inquest ten years later, a sergeant at a military control centre admitted that he had seen the plane disappear off the screen. Previously it had been categorically denied that the military had kept the plane under surveillance. The plane's radar echo was followed, on a parallel course, by another target. Then it was hit by a third (unknown?) object on a crossing trajectory and the resulting cascade of debris, seen on radar, was thrown in the same direction as the crossing object had moved. [1]

A similar accident happened in 1968, when an Air Lingus Viscount plane went down into the Irish Sea and 61 people were killed. Six years later the parts of a RPV-like missile were fished out of the sea, and the connection with the previous accident was made. The plane had passed south of a military test field for rockets near Aberporth in Wales. There has been no official confirmation of the presumed connection. [2]

According to The Sunday Times a similar incident occurred in 1982, when another Italian DC-9 almost collided with a mysterious object at 27,000 feet. The unknown object exploded near the plane. Passengers on board described the object as a "fast-moving projectile, like a missile". [3]

On March 11, 1982, a Norwegian Twin Otter with 15 people crashed off Honningsvåg in the northern part of Norway. The plane was en route between Berlevåg and Mehamn when, for unknown reasons, it crashed into the sea. All on board perished. First, the pilot was blamed but two witnesses had seen a fighter-like plane in the area seconds before the the crash. One of the witnesses, Selius Samuelsen, saw two airplanes "melt together".

The chairman of the investigation committee, Lieutenant General Wilhelm Mohr, emphatically denied that any Norwegian or NATO airplane was in the area. According to the Narvik newspaper Fremover, a radar plot of the incident showed another echo on parallel course with the Twin Otter shortly before the accident and that the two plots crossed each other at the place of the accident.

"There is no doubt that the Twin Otter was hit by a NATO plane," says journalist Oddvar Kristoffersen of the Fremover newspaper, who has spent a long time investigating what really happened. Kristoffersen is convinced that the official explanations and the two crash investigations have been laid in order to protect NATO interests. [4]

The interesting thing about these cases is the secrecy and the lies from up high. All methods are allowed to cover-up the real cause. Such pieces of disinformation we must always count on concerning incidents that involve unknown missiles.

And the incidents continue. Sometimes the cases are so similar that it seems that the same blueprint was used.

One case comes from Australia

"17th December 1984 at 1500 (3 pm). From RAAF files, Canberra. A pilot observed a missile shaped object with tapered body coming to sharp conical point at nose and cut off rear section with "fins". The pilot considered it to be not unlike a cruise missile which was sand colored. No sound or exhaust was emitted. It disappeared after about 2-3 seconds, into the sky rather (than) over horizon." [5]

A Greek Olympic Airways aircraft (flight OA 132) with 61 passengers on board had a very close encounter with a missile on August 15, 1985. The aircraft, with Christos Stamulis as chief pilot, was en route from Zurich to Athens and was just passing the Swiss-Italian border.

At 16.05 hours Stamulis contacted the Linate control tower and stated that he had just seen a projectile without wings pass by, from left to right. The Boeing 727 was flying in air corridor "Amber 14" on a southeasterly course at 7,500 meters altitude. It was just preparing an ascent when the missile passed by, only some 60-150 meters below the aircraft. The missile was dark brown, or black, and a couple of meters long. The passengers on board knew nothing about the near-hit.

Who was responsible? The Swiss military had, only a few minutes before the encounter, ended a military maneuver in the St. Gottard area with civilian air traffic being closed off. But spokesmen said the exercises were only with Army units and did not involve missiles. The Swiss military had three rocket systems at the time: Bloodhound, Rapier and Sidewinder. None had been actively used from Swiss territory. The Swiss Sidewinders have only been tested at the north-Swedish missile test area near Vidsel (sometimes used by the military forces of other neutral countries).

Judging from it's direction of flight, the projectile must have come from the Italian side of the border. Italian authorities denied knowledge of any military tests. The missile had, reportedly, not shown up on military radar and neither Italy nor NATO had anything going on that could explain the sighting.

The theory of a balloon was denied by Stamulis: "That was a military device, of that I am sure. It was a ballistic rocket." A radar operator stated that objects of that small size, travelling at great speed, could not be spotted on civilian radar. [6] Was it a long-distance test flight of an American or Soviet cruise missile? [7]

"Coming closer we saw that it was a metallic missile with steering fins at the back. Now and then it changed it's course according to the terrain and I interpreted this as if it was following the power lines below us.

"Since we had become curious I dived down towards the missile and turned our plane to try to follow, but this was impossible. We simply didn't have the engine power to compete with the object. It disappeared from us at an altitude of a few hundred meters."

The four pilots reported the incident to the military who attempted, in vain, for a six month period to identify the object. However, no one from the defense authorities made direct contact with the pilots after their first report. [8] This kind of non-interest in the violation of Swedish air by unknown aerial objects (as compared to the military high-level interest in the recent wave of Swedish submarine violations) is typical, yet strange

The object was reported by the newspapers (contrary to the FAA report) to have been moving "at high speed," in a northerly direction. Pilot Cantrell said he saw no exhaust from the missile. In this case a blimp-shaped balloon (notice the pilot's description of the object as being "homemade") may be a plausible explanation although the prevailing winds at the time does not support that solution. In a routine manner (?) a Pentagon spokesman denied anything military could explain the sighting. [9]

A little more than two years ago, a missile sighting was made by an Italian pilot, Achille Zaghetti, on a routine flight from Milan to London. On April 21, 1991, Zaghetti and his co-pilot were piloting a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 with 57 passengers on board. was 20.00 hours.

Clas Svahn interviewed the Italian pilot over the phone in his home in Rome, early this year, and this is his story - with a few abbreviations.

CS: Could you tell me, in your own words, what happened?

AZ: It was during descent, and our position was right in the middle of the Channel between France and England. We were coming down with the autopilot, which is connected to a computer. The descent rate was 1,200 feet per minute. When we were at about 26,000 feet we increased the rate of descent. Of course, when doing that, the speed was going up and we were going faster. So, me and my co-pilot looked outside since we had another aircraft in front. We didn't see the shape of that aircraft, we just saw their anticollision lights. The other plane was ahead of me, about 15 miles. It seemed to us that we were using this distance because of our increasing speed. We were looking out occasionally. Usually we do not look with such intensity as we did this time.

I was crossing 22,100 feet and we were heading 321 when I saw something coming, heading 110-120, about.

CS: So the object was coming from left to right in front of you?

AZ: It was coming from the left to the right. The day was coming down but we had light because of the height. So I saw something circular, very similar to a missile. I used the word "missile" because of the shape, not because I saw a missile. It was like a missile. It was round, about ten feet long, light brown colour and I said to my co-pilot "look out, look out". He was already looking outside with me because of the flight in front of us, not because of the unknown object. And he saw what I saw.

We reported it directly to the control and I asked "Have you something on your screen? It should be behind me now'. Our speed was about 380 knots, but I don't know about the object's speed, of course.

As soon as I asked this to the control, he said to me "Yes, I target something that is now ten miles behind you". That he said in the moment we asked him. When we landed in London I called, I think it was the chief controller, or something like that, and he told me that we were targeted at 22,100 feet.

After one day they told me that it had been a helicopter going northeast, instead of southeast as I had said. And, as you know, it is impossible for a helicopter to be at 22,000 feet. I suggested that they should replay the radar tape again and look at all the spots and rebuild the scene. That was what I suggested the day after, but I never have had any exchanges of ideas, as I am now having with you, with anybody from the British state, or someone else.

CS: I wrote a letter to the Civil Aviation Authority in London and got a reply. I can read from it if you are interested.

AZ: Yes.

CS: "Both Air Defence and Army firing ranges have been ruled out and the Ministry of Defence had no report of any space activity which could provide an explanation. The description of the object does not correspond to that expected had it been a meteorological balloon. The investigation has therefore been closed and the sighting will be listed as an unidentified flying object". So it is no helicopter anymore.

AZ: No helicopter. It is very strange... They thought about a meteorological balloon and so did I. As soon as I saw this object I scanned my INS platform about the wind. I remember that it was coming diagonal, five knots. Usually it goes straight up. It never goes in line as the object I saw, especially when there is no wind.

CS: Was this object passing between you and the other aircraft?

AZ: No, the other aircraft was below, at about 12,000 feet.

CS: How many minutes later did you land at Heathrow?

AZ: This was 23 minutes before landing.

CS: How was the weather at the time? Was it dark?

AZ: It was dark down. It was light up because of the sun.

CS: You didn't see any exhaust trail or something?

AZ: No. If you take a military aircraft, they carry an extra tip-fuel. It was similar to that as far as I remember, the shape could be that.

CS: But it was hard to see exactly?

AZ: Yes, quite impossible, it was just a flash. First, I didn't even want to make a report because It is always difficult that someone will believe you.

CS: So, if they hadn't seen it on radar on the ground you wouldn't have reported it?

AZ: No, I say no. It is strange that when I say "we have something around me that now should be behind me" the controller said to me "yes, you have a target behind you ten miles". I don't think he would have said this if it had been a meteorological balloon. If the object was stationary and not travelling towards me, and if you calculate the time from my question to his answer, it should be four-five miles behind me. My speed was about 400 miles per hour. But if it was something with speed he would be nine or ten miles behind me. From my question to the answer it was 40-60 seconds.

CS: So, the object was travelling with its own speed?

AZ: Yes.

CS: Then it must have had some sort of propulsion system.

AZ: But I didn't see any exhaust, flame or... nothing .

CS: When a pilot sees something he doesn't understand, he usually doesn't report it, if I understand you right?

AZ: Usually we ask the radar first if he saw what we saw. And if he says that he didn't see anything, we didn't see anything either.

CS: You need a confirmation.

AZ: Yeah.

CS: How were you treated afterwards, when you told other pilots and persons of your experience?

AZ: Some people smiled and some people asked me what it was. Some want to make clamour of this but I left home for four days to avoid the press. This is something you experience once in a lifetime and I will never forget it. It is like a photo that will never get out of my head. It was very, very fast. Even now I remember these brief moments. [10]

The Alitalia encounter hit the headlines and got front-page attention in newspapers such as The Sunday Times [11] According to a letter from CAA, the British Civil Aviation Authority, there were no military missile launchings that could explain the sighting (although the plane had been over an infantry training area) . [12]

Paul Murphy, a member of the British parliament approached the Ministry of Defence on the matter. The MoD claimed that at no time, so far, had there been any threat represented by UFO incidents such as this... [13] Believe it, if you like.

The next incident in our list took place over the British mainland, on June 1, 1991, at 1438 hours. A Britannia Airways Boeing 737 was bound from Dublin to London-Heathrow descending at 8,000 feet on a heading of 110 degrees. The two pilots both saw the unknown object for a very short period of only 1-2 seconds. It was seen through the windscreen and disappeared very rapidly down the port side.

The flight officer described the missile (?) as a yellow-orange cylindrical body with a possible "wrinkled appearance". The size was estimated to be about 10 feet. The pilots theorized that it might have been a meteorological balloon, but the closure rate seemed very rapid for a stationary object. The CAA committee considered the weather balloon theory improbable, but one member thought that the "wrinkled" appearance of the body could suggest an advertising balloon that had broken away, although none had been reported. The case is still considered unidentified. [14]

Four passengers on board Dan Air flight DA 4700 from London (Gatwick) to Hamburg saw yet another of the unknown missiles on June 17, 1991. The wingless projectile passed below and to the left (north) of the Boeing 737. The missile appeared to be flying at an altitude of 4-5,000 feet just above the cloud layer. In Hamburg, the passengers notified the flight crew and a report was written.

The main witness was German engineer Walter Liess. He was seated by a window and saw, at about 1830 hours, a flying object without wings and with no vapour trail.

"The object was slender, grey, and, so it seemed, sort of cigar-shaped. Its flightpath was on a parallel with ours but diametrically opposed. The object flew over the cloud-deck and under our aircraft; the object seemed to oscillate in altitude. It's possible the object was standing still and only gave the impression of movement (i.e. relative motion). The object was estimated to be visible for 2-3 minutes."

The Dan Air crew had not seen the object, but three other passengers did. [15]

A few months later, on July 15, 1991, another Britannia Airways Boeing 737 on a holiday flight from Crete to Gatwick (London) had a similar encounter at 17.45 hours in the evening. Descending at 15,000 feet the co-pilot caught sight of a "small black lozenge shaped object" some 500 meters ahead and above. The object was on a collision course and within two seconds it passed the aircraft's wing at a distance of only 100 meters at less than 10 meters above the wing. No impact or "wake" was felt by the crew and the passengers were not alerted. The pilot assessed the risk of collision as high.

When reported to the London Air Traffic Control Center the missile was picked up on radar moving away from the aircraft. It was moving at 100 miles per hour in a southeasterly direction and was no known traffic since it had no transponder to identify it. Another aircraft was warned since the unknown target appeared to change heading towards it, but the other craft saw nothing. The radar target might, however, have been a helicopter on a lower level.

The sighted object was very small, some 1.5 feet in diameter, very smooth and roundish. A balloon, meteorological or toy, was suspected but this does not conform with the radar reports of an object moving at 100 m.p.h. - if that was the unknown object. The official report still regarded the unknown object as "untraced". [16]

The pilots of United Airlines' flight 934, a Boeing jumbo jet, were the witnesses in the most recent incident, on August 5, 1992. They were en route from Los Angeles to London and the sighting occurred some 50 miles NE of George Air Force Base at about 13.45 in the afternoon. The 747 at 23,000 feet departing from Los Angeles on a 40 degree heading.

Suddenly an unusual aircraft came directly towards the aircraft and passed under them at an estimated distance of 500-1,000 feet. During several seconds the crew got the impression of "a lifting body configuration, and they described it as looking like the forward fuselage of a Lockheed SR-71 - without wings but with a tail of sorts." The edges of the fuselage were rounded instead of sharp. The size was estimated to be similar to an F-16 (some 50 feet long). Speed was considered as supersonic.

The Defence Department and the Air Force denied any knowledge but added: "we're not the only ones with strange projects", referring to the CIA and other organizations. [17]

The reports in this category appear - at first sight - to be very similar but may, in fact, be a very mixed bag:

1. Military ballistic missiles gone astray.

It is public knowledge that at least two Soviet missiles went astray in the 1980's: one (probably a target missile) fell into a Finnish lake (December 1984) and was later returned to Russia [18], the other (a SSN-8 submarine shot on Sept. 11, 1986) landed in the borderlands between Russian and China [19]. Large continental/intercontinental ballistic missiles travelling at three times the speed of sound are unlikely as a cause for most of the mid-air encounters. Small anti-aircraft and other military purpose missiles are much more likely.

2. Remotely-piloted vehicles and cruise missiles.

Travelling at much lower speeds - and not on ballistic trajectories - objects in this category are the most likely candidates to explain the sightings. Cruise missiles, like the Tomahawk, may have been tested over the US and Europe. In Sweden and Norway there are several hundred RPV/missile sightings reported by ground level witnesses during the past 40-50 years. One peculiar factor in some of these sightings (as in the mid-air incidents) is the reported absence of any exhaust, vapour trail or other signs of a propulsion system.

Most sightings in this category (like the aircraft encounters we have summarized in this article) are of a very short duration. Usually not more than 4-5 seconds. This may explain, in part, the official non- interest in the cases. The sightings are difficult to "prove" since they rest mostly on eye-witness data alone. Note, however, that in four of the cases reported in this article, the objects were probably spotted on radar.

3. Balloons.

Balloons of different kinds may be another explanation. Meteorological balloons usually collapse at relatively low altitudes, but large toy and advertising balloons may be likely. Five of the cases reported here occurred at altitudes above 20.000 feet. For pilots on high-speed aircraft it may be difficult to judge whether an approaching object is self-propelled or just blowing with the prevailing winds.

4. Para-missiles.

By comparison, there are volumes upon volumes of historic data recording "technological imitations" - "ghostly" or "phantom" appearances in our skies. To name but a few: the airship waves over Poland in 1892, the American continent in 1896-97 and over Europe, New Zealand and South Africa in 1908-1914; the ghost fliers in Canada and Norway 1914-1916 and in Scandinavia 1933-1938; the ghost rockets of 1946; ghost fliers again over west-Sweden in the mid-1970s; the Hudson valley boomerang in the 1980s; the Belgian triangle wave in 1989-91, and so on. Many of these waves have been associated with developing technologies in other parts of the world, but with no positive or definitive correlation made.

After all, are these "technological imitations" a mirror of the human mind...? In that case the hallucinations are very much of the collective kind.

The Greek Ghost Rockets of 1946

By Thanassis Vembos

The wave of the so-called “ghost rockets” of Scandinavia during the summer and early autumn of 1946 is well-known. Less-known is its Greek “offshoot”. In fact the ghost rockets were crossing the skies of other countries outside Scandinavia –especially in the Mediterranean area. Needless to say the general impression and the standard interpretation of the time was that they were secret weapons, most probably of Soviet origin.

To my knowledge, the most comprehensive report on the Greek ghost rockets was and still is a few paragraphs that noted UFO historian Loren Gross (left) devotes in his 1974 booklet The Mystery of the Ghost Rockets (p. 25). This and dozens other booklets constitue a dedicated and praiseworthy attempt to construct a chronological history of early UFOogy. Gross' sources were most probably exclusively news reports of the time, particularly New York Times, Manchester Guardian and Chicago Tribunewhich used reports of Associated Press and other agencies. Gross also cites a table of the sightings on pages 50 & 51. There are also a few lines cited by Timothy Good in his Top Secret, which circulate over and over in the Internet. My own research was based on the existing contemporary Greek newspapers. A presentation of the whole story through the Greek media of the time follows.

On September 5, 1946, Greek prime minister Constantine Tsaldaris, while in London, stated during a press conference that “flying rockets” were sighted in the skies of Northern Greece. In particular, twelve rockets were spotted during the night of September 1 by Greek divisional commanders and British officers; they flew from north to south and to other directions too; their nature and origin remained unknown. One of them was seen by British officers in Thessaloniki; the rest were seen in various areas, from Stavroupolito Kastoria, over Serres and Drama (cities in western central and easternMacedonia). Note that all the above regions border with Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, countries that actively supported the bloody Communist Rebellion (1946-49); tensions with northern neighbors were extremely high at the time and the presence of British military was strong. “We do not know where the rockets were from”, stated Tsaldaris diplomatically, “or from which direction they came”. Tsaldaris statement hit the headlines in most of Greek newspapers the next day, September 6.

The statement, which was later confirmed by active foreign ministerStephanos Stephanopoulos, was the delayed official recognition of various stories and grapevine from Northern Greece about the rockets (mind that nothing appeared in the newspapers before Tsaldaris’ statement; reasons of national security were imposing a kind of voluntary censorship in these difficult years).

The objects were described as “flares” emitting brilliant white light and leaving a contrail or a trail of smoke, like shooting stars. The ghost rocket of Thessaloniki was observed on 19.15, September 1; it was moving in a great altitude, estimated over 2,000 m, from NE to W; no sound of any explosion was heard after its disappearance (Embros, 6.9.1946). The rockets that crossed the skies over Serres (observed by three British officers, according to the correspondent of Reuters news office in Athens) were following the same route but were brighter. Another one was spotted moving from Katerini toGiannitsa (from south to north) something that seemed odd since the untold conclusion was that these were communist actions (Embros, 6.9.1946).

Confirming prime minister Tsaldaris statements, Minister Stephanopoulos told the foreign reporters at a press conference held on the evening of September 5, that the estimated altitude of the rockets was 5-10,000 m, confirmed that they were seen also by British high officers and that no other sightings were reported until today (Embros, Acropolis, 6.9.1946). The British had reported the sightings to their embassy; according to some official sources, the rockets were launched from Albania and Yugoslavia (Eleftheria, 6.9.1946). Vradyni (6.9.1946) wrote that Greek Army was continuing investigations regarding the origin of the rockets.

Something that made the incident seem more dramatic was that the sightings happened on a very critical day: on Sunday, September 1, an important plebiscite was held regarding the return of the exiled king George II; royalists won by a landslide victory of 69%; in some regions of mainland Greece the pro-king votes reached up to 97%. This was not due to a particular desire for the return of the king, as it was a vote against the Communist Party. Communists had started intensifying operations in the summer of that year.

As the ballots were closed, ghost rocket reports came from sensitive northern Greece. Notably, there were also reports of ‘foreign aircraft’ flying over the city of Serres (Kathimerini, 1.9.1946; Acropolis, 2.9.1946). According to the brief report of Kathimerini, an aircraft flew over Serres at 19.20 leaving behind a trail of smoke –something that maybe indicates that this ‘aircraft’ was the ‘ghost rocket’ of the later reports. Unfortunately newspaper reports of the time are very brief and understandably vague, since they had to do with national security issues.

Also understandably, there was a big fuss in Northern Greece on these sightings; various rumors started to circulate. Thessaloniki newspapers wrote that, according to a Greek Air Force higher officer, a Greek fighter plane that was flying over Serres during the evening of September 1, not only spotted the rockets but also opened machine-gun fire against one of them (Vradyni, 6.9.1946). There was no confirmation or rebuttal by the Greek Air Force. The latter declined expressing an opinion about the origin of the rockets.

On September 7, Acropolis reported that “three nights ago” (probably September 4), “flashes” were seen in great altitude over a region near the town of Kastoria, western Macedonia. It was believed that they were flares used by communist rebels for communication. On the same day Ethnosreported that special teams of officers had started investigation on the origin of the rockets. The newspaper wrote that two of these rockets had exploded -one over the town of Aridaia, near the Yugoslav border, with deafening noise and the other to the direction of Mount Olympus, Thessaly, as seen from Thessaloniki (south direction).

Again on September 7, Embros newspaper reported that 4 rockets were seen during the night of September 1 over Thessaloniki, Sidirokastro, Giannitsa and Katerini. It reported also that during the day of the plebiscite “over 300 rockets were launched over Kastoria region”. When the results of the referendum became known, another rocket was launched. The journalist used the word “rocket” but most probably these were low altitude flares. There were strong fears that Macedonia was to be invaded by communists from Yugoslavia that particular night –especially when it became clear that the royalists had won the plebiscite. It is characteristic that this information accompanied the central news story of the day –that a Greek Spitfire plane was hit by Yugoslav anti-aircraft guns and was forced to land on Yugoslav soil; its pilot was arrested. Similar incidents characteristic of the tension between the two countries were reported nearly on a daily bases.

Nevertheless, the British Embassy in Athens issued a press release discounting the reports that these objects were rockets. According to this press release no British officer had reported seeing such missiles and most probably the objects were a type of “flare” reportedly sighted in the regions of Grevena, Kastoria, Nestori, Ptolemaida, and a couple of villages nearFlorina (all of them at western Macedonia). The British noted that the launch of a rocket would require special infrastructure which is most probably absent from countries neighboring Greece. Nevertheless, the embassy specified that the “rockets” were sighted over Beles Mount, Paiko Mount, Katerini and Thessaloniki. Similar unconfirmed information came from Stavroupoli, Paranesti, Drama, Pontokerasia, Askos and Edessa. (Gross, p. 25,Eleftheria, 7.9.1946, Acropolis 7.9.1946). According to Gross (p. 25) the special correspondent of Manchester Guardian (later The Guardian), based in Thessaloniki, admitted that the British Consul had witnessed a strange light in the sky the evening of September 1, but he dismissed the phenomenon as probably fireworks since the illuminations was so very near the ground.

September 7 was again a night with significant activity. On the next day, September 8, Acropolis and Embros reported that at 1 am of the previous night, a rocket moving from northeast to west exploded over Thermaic Gulfemitting green flames. It added that other rockets were sighted during the same night over Kozani and Servia. The rocket sighted over the town of Servia crossed the sky at 5 am at an altitude of 500 m moving from north to south. Its point of origin seemed to be somewhere between Kozani andVeroia. During the same night, a rocket passed over Farsala and Larisa(further south, Thessaly) at 4.30 am. Another telegram from Kavala (far eastern Macedonia) reported that two rockets passed over the city moving from north to south, between 6 and 7 am. According to Eleftheria of the same day (September, 8) rockets were seen over Thessaloniki at 5.15 am, over Nikiforo, Drama at 5.30 am and over Agios Athanasios and Polykarpos villages of the same area at 5.30 am.

Vradyni of September 9 reported that “yesterday” (September 8?) at 5 am a rocket passed over the towns of Nevrokopi and Doxato, over Thasos island and was lost in the horizon heading south. Another one passed over Farsala (Thessaly) at 4.30. Most probably these were events that took place on September 7.

On September 11, Embros reported that an anonymous but high standing military officer stated that there were three possibilities regarding the origin of the mysterious rockets. Either they were launched by Communist rebels who were receiving military aid from neighboring countries, or from evolved installations near the Greek border. A third possibility was that maybe the rockets were launched by aircraft flying in great altitudes. The officer considered the last two possibilities as most probable.

The same newspaper reported that during the night of September 7, a rocket originating from Yugoslavia had fell near Niki village at the Greek-Yugoslavian border. Also at 19.40 of September 10, a “luminous bolide” was seen near Pangaion mountain (eastern Macedonia), moving south.

On September 11 Acropolis reported that the previous day at 10 pm, “three rockets leaving red contrails” were seen over Thessaloniki. The same newspaper wrote that these rockets were seen over Athens too, emitting red smoke during the early hours of September 11, moving from north to south.

Paul Santorinis (also referred as Santorini), then associate professor of Applied Physics in Athens University and –as it would be later revealed- member of a secret committee for the investigation of the Greek ghost rocket mystery, spoke in Athens Radio Station on September 9. He commented on the Scandinavian wave of sightings saying that these must have been very advanced rocket weapons –not only radio-controlled but self-guided by computer, an incredible technological feat back then. These super-advanced missiles were used as a psychological weapon by the Soviets and their allies, sent over Scandinavia and other countries, Greece included, making a show of their abilities. Seemingly these rockets had a tremendously effective flight safety record –none of them was crashed or retrieved, therefore they should have been of high technology. He rejected the hypothesis that the Scandinavian ghost rockets were rather primitive and not able to be guided from a distance. Santorinis' comments appeared in Embros, September 11, as an article under the title “Ghost Rockets – Abilities of the New Weapon”.

Gradually, the ghost rocket phenomenon lost its initial weight. There were more pressing and immediate problems. A feature by journalist E. Thomopoulos in Acropolis, September 22, is enlightening. The journalist had made some local investigation in Thessaloniki. His first impression was that the “scores” of rockets seen over northern Greece was an exaggeration. Most probably three or four of them were truly sighted, leaving a “red-blue contrail”. This exaggeration was due to the mass hysteria and to the subversive communist propaganda. Thomopoulos also pointed to the fact that no trace or debris were ever found, which would have been rather improbable if there were so many rocket flyovers. He also pointed that lots of shooting stars and meteors can be observed in the autumn evening sky; some of them might have been misinterpreted for enemy missiles. He does not opine that the rockets were highly advanced; it would be stupid for somebody to use such an evolved weapon over enemy territory; the possibility of a crash and retrieval would have been a huge blow to this competitive advantage. He concludes that the rockets most possibly must have been flares or some other device to convey messages to the communist rebels in the Greek mountains. “In a few words”, he concludes “it must be a sort of optical telegraph able to send messages to great distances”, he wrote.

The signal hypothesis was also mentioned in Vradyni (10.9.1946) by the British correspondent in Greece; he proposed that the ghost rocket sightings multiplied because the rebels realized that the population was upset, so they increased the frequency of launches.

It is very difficult to get a clear picture of what exactly happened during September 1946 regarding the Greek ghost rockets. The only sources are the rather laconic stories in the (few) contemporary newspapers. Military files remain secret –and personally I doubt if they still exist. It seems that some unidentified luminous phenomena were observed over northern Greece –but since we do not have solid documentation, first hand witness testimonies, hard and reliable data in general, we must rely exclusively on these old newspaper accounts.

We must take into account several factors, like the Scandinavian ghost rocket wave which may have affected the way the sightings were reported; also the extremely high tensions in a war-ravaged country where a civil conflict had already started and where a possible communist invasion from the north was believed to be a very realistic possibility. All these must be taken into consideration. It was also a fact that Yugoslavian, Bulgarian and Albanian planes were frequently breaching Greek air space, flying over Northern Greece to parachute military materiel to rebels or for reasons of psychological warfare.

Taking all these into account, we cannot exclude the possibility that maybe natural phenomena e.g. meteors were misinterpreted as “rockets”. Judging by the reported descriptions, no rocket-like objects were really observed. The observational data are quite meager but the existing descriptions talk about flare-like or bolide-like objects which were surmised to be rockets by the observers, the authorities or the media. The fact that the sightings were reported over a very large geographical refion may supports the meteor theory; a meteor high in stratosphere would have been visible from all parts of Macedonia, and even further away.

Yet, there are some corroborating data regarding unexplained aerial activity during this general period. The shift of the ghost rocket phenomenon from Scandinavia to Mediterranean is a parameter we must keep in mind. But there is also a first-hand case unearthed by researcher George Balanos (b. 1944) and presented in his book Creatures from Space (1975). It had taken place at Samos island, in the end of July or early August 1946, a month before the ghost rockets of northern Greece. Twenty-four year old designer Amfitryon Moschonas was at Pountes, near Pythagoreion on that eastern Aegean island around 9 pm when, whole walking, saw an “egg-shaped object with a small tail, emitting an extremely brilliant pink-orange light” moving from NE to SW. The object was visible for 15 seconds and the witness had the impression that it was emitting a soft noise. The duration of the sighting excludes the possibility of a meteor. The UFO was seen by other people in the village too.

As it was later revealed, Santorinis, considered an expert on the subject of radio-guided missiles, was given a group of engineers and was put head of the investigations launched by the Greek authorities. Paul Santorinis (1893-1986) was a prominent scientist with international fame; he had been a developer of the proximity fuze on the first atom bomb and held patents on guidance systems for Nike missiles and radar systems.

Later Santorinis would became an ardent supporter of the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs. During a lecture he gave in early February 1967 at the Greek Astronautics Society, a private club dedicated to the promotion of astronautics, probably surprised his rather skeptical audience by claiming that highly evolved aliens were visiting out planet. He noted that “even the thought of alien visitors of higher psychic, physical and technological level is extremely disturbing for all the authorities on this Earth. So the latter try to tackle with the problem by ridiculing and refuting it”. He also supported that the 1965 power black out in United States was a result of UFO interference. Santorinis elaborated on close encounters of the third kind.

He also revealed for the first time the nature of his involvement with the 1946 ghost rocket investigations. “We soon established that they were not missiles”, he said. “But, before we could do any more, the Army, after conferring with foreign officials ordered the investigation stopped. Foreign scientists [from Washington] flew to Greece for secret talks with me". (Sources: “Flying saucers are real”, Athinaiki 3.2.1967; “Flying Saucers exist”, Ethnos, 3.2.1967 ; “Flying Saucers”, extended feature on Santorinis' speech, Eleftheros Kosmos, 8,9 & 10.2.1967)

Maybe the ghost rockets of 1946 were not really rocket-shaped. But rocket-like or cigar-shaped UFOs were to be sighted many times over Greece the next decades. A list of some sightings follows.

*Early May 1948. According to a very brief newspaper report, the Greek Army announced that “luminous rockets” were sighted over the regions of Herso, Doirani, Callindria and Katerini –a wide area covering a large part of Macedonia; an investigation was ordered (source: Eleftheria, 8.5.1948. Loren Gross probably refers to this case which was reported by United Press, but mistakenly dates it in 1947)

* September, 8, 1950. Between 7 and 10 pm, two rockets were seen overRhodes island, southeastern Aegean, flying to northwest direction with an estimated speed of 800 mph. They were leaving a luminous contrail and emitting a soft noise. People sitting in two seaside restaurants were impressed by the tremendous speed and the light of the rockets. (Source:Acropolis, 21.9.1950)

* April, 10, 1952. A “luminous phenomenon […] rocket-shaped and blue colored” was seen moving from west to east for 10 seconds over Corinth, Peloponnese at 10.35 pm. “It is believed that it was a flying saucer since it did not have any common traits with natural heavenly phenomena”, concluded the brief newspaper report (Source: Athinaiki, 11.4.1952)

* October, 9, 1954. S. Horiatellis and his 12 year old son were hunting near Stymi village at Lesvos island, northeastern Aegean sea when they a saw a luminous cigar-shaped object moving horizontally. After a while it started moving vertically and it was divided in two. The divided parts were also cigar-shaped and moved in a constant distance from each other. (source:Hellinikos Vorras, 10.10.1954).

*November, 11, 1954. 19 year old Pharmacology student Nicolaos Kokavesis and his friend Antonios Andreoulakis were walking a road at Zografousuburb, greater Athens, at 5.03 pm when they spotted a “flying cigar” in an altitude they estimated at 10,000m. It was moving from north to east, was emitting a blinding silver light and left white smoke behind it, which was immediately dissolving. The object was disappeared after 85 seconds. Fifteen minutes later, a flying saucers appeared northeast, moving “wobbly” in the same altitude with the “cigar”; it was also emitting brilliant silver-white light. It disappeared after 5 minutes and 17 seconds. The UFOs did not make any noise. Two other people observed the objects by binoculars. The unusual meticulousness of the report was due to the detailed account the student sent to newspapers. (source: Apogevmatini, 12.11.1954).

*December, 9, 1959. At 8.30 pm a strong flash of light was observed in the sky over Kalymnos island, Dodecanese. This lasted for 30 seconds. After that a loud bang reverberating for over 1 minute shook the island. Then a rocket-shaped object moving from east to west was seen in a great altitude. According to information the sound and the flash were heard and seen from nearby Turkey. (Source: Apogevmatini, 10.12.1959)

* Mid-May 1968. At Xiromero, western Central Greece, at 7-8 pm, a car mechanic observed a UFO shaped like a “bullet”. It was hovering vertically and its bottom was flat, emitting smoke and flames. Later the object turned in a horizontal position and flew to the west. The witness was driving his motorcycle during the incident. (Source George Balanos, Creatures from Space, 1975, p. 120).

*October, 3, 1985. About fifteen fishermen and farmers standing on the shores of Molyvoti and Imeros or Rhodope saw a very dark flying object shaped like a “huge cigar” moving slowly to the north after standing still for a while. It is indicative that the fishermen were so much impressed by the sight that they cancelled their regular night fishing excursion and returned to their coastal villages to tell their experience. (Source: Eleftheros Typos, 5.10.1985)

* December 14, 1985. Three flight controllers at Naxos, Lemnos and Corfuislands, independent from each other, reported to Greek Air Force Headquarters a UFO like a “fiery cigar” passing above. The Air Force estimated that the object moved with over 3,000 miles per hour. Officers expressed the opinion that it could have been a “space vehicle or American laser tests” (Strategic Defense Initiative or Star Wars was a very popular topic back then). (Source: Elftherotypia, 15.12.1985)

Source: https://thvempos.wixsite.com/thanassisvembos/post/the-greek-ghost-rockets-of-1946