DOW-UAP-D163: A "Flying Saucer" Beneath a DC-3 over Hassleholm -- Stockholm Air Attache Report, Sweden, December 1953

Source file: DOW-UAP-D163-Air_Intelligence_Information_Report_Sweden-1953.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Air Force (USAF), Office of the Air Attache (OAirA), Stockholm Document type: Air Intelligence Information Report (AF Form 112), No. IR-12-54 Date: Report dated 13 January 1954; date of information "December 53 - January 54"; sighting on 17 December 1953 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED (typed on every page; declassification stamp NND 57597); released to the public in 2026 Page count: 3 VIRIN: 260508-D-D0360-1155 PURSUE Release: 7

Summary

Unlike most AIIRs in the collection, which rest on direct questioning of a witness, this report is mainly a translation of a newspaper story, with a thin but pointed intelligence layer added on top: a character sketch of the pilot. It was sent by the U.S. Office of the Air Attache in Stockholm, and the SOURCE field on the form states plainly "Press and Personal Contact."

The event itself was brief. On 17 December 1953 at 1437 hours, a Transair DC-3 was flying from Bulltofta, near Malmo, to Bromma airport in Stockholm. Over Hassleholm in southern Sweden a metallic, nearly round object passed it head-on, about 600 meters below and just above the cloud layer, and disappeared to the southwest after six or seven seconds. The Swedish Defense Staff announced that it knew of no Swedish aircraft in the area and opened an investigation.

The report's second section passes on the words of a source in the Royal Swedish Air Board, a lifelong acquaintance of the pilot, who described him as "most untrustworthy." The report ends by saying the office is trying to obtain more information. It contains no independent finding and no follow-up.

Research Article

The form and its authors

Page 1 is a routine AF Form 112. Subject: "Flying Saucer" Sighted By Swedish Pilot. It was prepared by Major Burt Rowen, USAF (MC), who signed page 3 as Assistant Air Attache, and approved by Lt. Col. Herbert J. Rogers, Acting Air Attache. The evaluation given is B-2, and the reference field reads BAIR 3A. Distribution: A-2, U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), and the U.S. Army Attache in Stockholm.

Note the gap between the B-2 evaluation, relatively high on the standard scale (usually reliable source, information probably true), and the negative character sketch that follows. The form does not explain how the two were reconciled.

The translation: what the pilot told the press

Paragraph 1 on page 2 is a full translation of the article. It opens: "The chief pilot of Transair, Capt. Ulf Christiernsson, and his crew chief, Olle Johansson, had a strange meeting over Hässleholm at 1437 hours Thursday." The object, "A shining metal spherical elliptical object," was moving opposite to the aircraft "at an estimated speed of sound and approximately 600 meters below their DC-3."

The pilot is then quoted directly. He says he had been extremely sceptical of flying saucer stories, that "it did seem to me that we had seen a robot of some kind," and that he first took it for a jet, although they had received no word of any such aircraft. The DC-3 was at about 2,150 meters, the object about 600 meters below, heading southwest, and it disappeared after six or seven seconds. Cloud tops were at about 1,500 meters, the sun was shining, and "The object was proceeding just above the clouds."

Two details stand out. The first is the change in apparent shape: "The first silhouette I got diagonally from the right was narrow. When it was nearly directly under us, however, I saw that it was nearly round, just slightly elliptical." Such a description is consistent with a flat, disc-like body seen first edge-on and then from above. The second: the crew chief, who could see it longer, "thought it was almost phosphorescent." The pilot added that the object "could definitely not have been a meteor" and gave off no waste gases or condensation traces.

The article also notes that the airliner was on automatic controls at the time, and that the pilot had time only to report to Bulltofta and the Defense Staff.

The Swedish authorities' response

The article reproduces the Defense Staff communique: the crew of a civil aircraft had observed an unknown object moving in the opposite direction for six to seven seconds; the weather at that altitude was clear; "Because of the low lying cloud formations the object is not thought to have been seen from the ground"; the Defense Staff knew of no Swedish plane in the area; "An investigation is being conducted."

On page 3 the Swedish Air Force chief, General Nordenskiöld, is quoted as announcing that the object could not have been any Swedish aircraft, adding: "'We are now investigating,' he continued, 'what our radar stations might have spotted.'" The report does not give the result of that check.

The character sketch

Here the report goes beyond the translation. The article itself presents the pilot favourably: "very good silhouette recognition," service as a volunteer in the Royal Air Force from 1942 to 1946, finishing as a captain, and some thirty Mosquito raids over North Africa and Italy.

Paragraph 2 adds the attache office's own voice. The pilot, aged 41 and born in Skane, is described by "An extremely reliable source in the Royal Swedish Air Board," born in the same town and a lifelong acquaintance. According to this source he is "charming and well-liked" but also "most untrustworthy," and was dismissed from a former position for "financial difficulty." The source adds that during the war he tried to take a Swedish Air Force B-18 and fly to England, was intercepted at Gothenburg and jailed. Even so, the report notes that "it is generally agreed in the Swedish Air Force that Captain Christiernsson is one of the best (and most discussed) pilots in Sweden today," although he never served with the RSAF except as a reserve captain.

This section should be read with care: it is the hearsay of one unnamed person, and it concerns the witness's character, not the sighting. Nothing in the report suggests the source had any knowledge of the events of 17 December.

What the report does not say, and the AARO comment

The closing paragraph is short: "Although the source above personally doubts Christiernsson's story, the newspapers report that the Defense Staff is continuing its investigation of the incident. This office is attempting to obtain further information on the occurrence." The report contains no direct American interview with the pilot or the crew chief, no radar data and no proposed explanation.

The AARO comment in the official description calculates the object's altitude at about 1,550 meters (2,150 minus 600) and notes that the speed of sound there under standard conditions is about 748 mph. That fits the article's statement that cloud tops were at about 1,500 meters and the object was moving "just above the clouds." Bear in mind that a six-to-seven-second view from a moving aircraft sharply limits how precisely speed and distance can be judged.

Significance

The report is interesting for an unusual combination: a witness with operational combat flying experience, a daylight encounter in clear air above a cloud deck, and an immediate official response from the Swedish Defense Staff and Air Force chief, including a radar check. It also shows how American intelligence worked abroad: not independent investigation but collection from the press and from contacts, with an assessment of the witness's personal reliability. The tension between "one of the best pilots in Sweden" and "most untrustworthy" is left unresolved in the report itself.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"A shining metal spherical elliptical object came toward them traveling in the opposite direction from their machine at an estimated speed of sound and approximately 600 meters below their DC-3, which was on its way from Bulltofta to Bromma." -- page 2

"Because of the low lying cloud formations the object is not thought to have been seen from the ground." -- page 2

"The first silhouette I got diagonally from the right was narrow. When it was nearly directly under us, however, I saw that it was nearly round, just slightly elliptical." -- page 2

"The object, which could definitely not have been a meteor, gave off no waste gases or condensation traces." -- page 2

"'We are now investigating,' he continued, 'what our radar stations might have spotted.'" -- page 3

"Although it is generally agreed in the Swedish Air Force that Captain Christiernsson is one of the best (and most discussed) pilots in Sweden today, he has never served with the RSAF except as a reserve captain." -- page 3

"This office is attempting to obtain further information on the occurrence." -- page 3