By Steve Sandström
One of the nicest summer pleasures for many of us Swedes is to sit
idly by one of our thousands of lakes, holding a fishing-rod. Few
moments are as peaceful as these moments. Often, it is not catching
one or two fishes that holds our attention, but the very mystery of
the surrounding nature. Sometimes, however, unknown forces can
interact with the most idyllic hour. This is what happened to
Martell Åström last summer, in June 1994.
It was a very fine summer's day when Martell decided to go out in
the boat that he has by a small lake not far from Floda, where he
lives. Floda is a small village about 60 kilometers SW of the north-
Swedish town Skellefteå.
There was not a cloud in the sky. Martell took his boat to his
favorite fishing area and sat there idly for a long while. The only
sound was the waves lapping against the sides of his boat. Suddenly
he heard another sound, a sound foreign to the area.
At low altitude, maybe about 50 metres, and almost in zenith, there
suddenly came an unknown flying object. It looked like an arrow-
head and was black in colour. Martell could clearly see that the
object wasn't very big, he estimated it to be about two meters
long.
First Martell thought it was an ordinary jet fighter. The sound
reminded him of such a plane. He is completely convinced, however,
that it was no such plane. His view of it, against the clear summer
sky, was too good for such a mistake.
The unidentified object disappeared towards the other shore of the
lake. It was then at such a low altitude that it seemed to pass
between the trees. This was probably a misunderstanding since the
object was by then only a small black spot on the horizon. There are
no other witnesses to the incident but I see no reason to doubt the
sincerity of the observer.
The most difficult task is to try to judge whether there is a risk that Martell Åström did in fact see an ordinary jet, maybe a Viggen air force fighter, but was somehow mistaken in the strong sunlight. Probably not so. Even though there is still a chance for such a mistake at a certain angle, Martell could follow this object for quite a distance and he saw it quite distinctly. We can never be completely sure, especially since Martell does not remember the date of the incident, therefore it is impossible to verify if something military was in the neighbourhood.
It is up to each one of us to judge: did Martell see an airplane or
not? I do not personally think so because of his dead certain
description of the object's appearance. Readers of this article may
recognize details from another case "Miniature stealth-like plane
over Lake Vättern". This incident occurred at Brandstorp, close
to another Swedish lake. Five witnesses reported a small, delta-
shaped object flying at high speed out over the water. The Defence
Staff proposed that the witnesses had seen a radio-controlled model
aircraft. Anyone acquainted with model aircraft builders, however,
know they are not very keen on flying their treasures over rough
terrain or waters. Small objects have been spotted many times in
our area in the last years. We cannot turn away from them. I have a
feeling that many answers to the UFO mystery depend on the way
we treat and analyze this very special category of cases.
Note: Steve Sandström is the chairman of UFO-Skellefteå, whose investigations cover most of the vast northern territories. Steve is editor of their excellently desktopped magazine "UFO-Norr" (in Swedish only). Steve may be contacted by writing to:
UFO-Skellefteå, Uppfinnarvägen 4, S-931 45 Skellefteå, Sweden