Tidig blogg, tidig kväll och tidig morgon i morgon. Ska upp vid 04 för att åka in till nya jobbet på DN så jag lär väl ramla i säng vid 22 för att hinna sova en stund. Känns lite konstigt för en nattuggla men så är det bara för två månader.

Har ägnat en stor del av dagen åt att intervjua folk för att få in fakta när det gäller fallet med Draken-piloten som jagade ett oidentifierat föremål öster om Öland 1977. Jag har lagt en sammanfattning av fallet sist i denna blogg. Som ni förstår så jobbar jag vidare med händelsen men det lär nog ta ganska lång tid att försöka få fram mera fakta.

Har också tittat på ett svenskt fall från Växjö där en person har tagit flera filmer mellan den 21 och 24 januari. Per, som han heter, har en webbkamera riktad ut genom fönstret och det var på dessa bilder han upptäckte ett märkligt föremål för några dagar sedan. På filmerna, som egentligen är ihopklippta av en lång serie webbkamerabilder, ser man ett mycket ljusstarkt föremål passera från vänster till höger. Efter att ha fått en cd-skiva med hela material på posten i dag är jag säker på att det som har fastnat är månen. Bilden ovan en ruta tagen den 22 januari klockan 03.12,51. ”Ufot”, månen, är det ljusstarka föremålet längst upp till vänster. Att jag kan vara säker på att föremålet är månen (trots de små ljusen över och under, orsakade av ett dubbelt fönsterglas) beror på följande:

1/ Alla andra föremål på filmen, stjärnor och solen, rör sig i samma bana som det stora ljuset vilket visar att de följer himmelsrotationen och alltså befinner sig långt ut från jorden.
2/ På de tre filmer jag har fått för analys ser man hur föremålets position förändras från dag till dag. På exakt det sätt som månens positioner gör i den aktuella riktningen.
3/ Föremålet dyker upp vid de tidpunkter som månen befinner sig i det väderstreck som kameran är riktad.

Kikade också på ett polskt fotofall från den 14 januari som i vissa delar påminner om Växjö-fallet. Också här är månen inblandad men också ett mindre lysande föremål som har rört sig kring den och som fotograferats med en mobiltelefonkamera. Inte så lätt att säga vad det kan vara.

Passade på att spela badminton med Stefan och den här gången gick det bättre än förra veckan. Krossade honom med 3-0 i set. Antar att jag får spö nästa vecka istället.

Nu måste jag köra Markus till fotbollsträningen och Anneli kom just hem från yogan. Och sist men inte minst den engelska sammanfattningen av Draken-fallet.

English version of the Draken 1977 incident:
The encounter happened in the summer of 1977 at around 12 o’clock. The
experienced Swedish Air Force pilot flew a J35F ”Draken” fighter plane on a
routine training mission between the islands of Öland and Gotland in the
Baltic Sea SE of Sweden when he was diverted from the exercise by the
ground control radar. The ground control had picked up a target further
East of Sweden, and the pilot was at the time of the call around 100
kilometers from the target. Identifying unknown targets were routine during
these days, Swedish military went up several times every week identifying
Russian a/c and American spy planes flying in a strip outside Gotland.

This time the target behaved slightly different from ordinary Russian and
American a/c. The radar control on ground, situated 100 kilometers from the
object, reported it to be stationary, something that was later confirmed by
the pilot as he approached the object.

In a taped telephone interview made on June 19th 1999 the pilot told me
that he approached the target at a speed of Mach 0,9 and soon got the
object on his own radar screen. He was flying at 1.000 meters altitude
straight towards it and had the object 500 meters above his horizontal
line.

“When I was 10 kilometers from the object it suddenly started to move
straight up”, he told me. “I never saw it with my naked eye but could
follow it on my radar and decided to light up (the after burner) and
started to follow the target. I had a perfect lock on it all the time.

His “Draken”, which was the latest model J35F, climbed at an angle of 70
degrees trying to keep up with the target. According to the pilot he never
came closer than 6-8 kilometers.
“When I was at 10.000 meters the object flew out of the radar range,
straight out in space. It was at an altitude of 40 to 50 kilometers at that
time. I aborted the chase but stayed in the area for 2-3 minutes trying to
locate the object but was unable to find anything.”

“One strange thing was that while my aircraft was leaving vapour trails
behind me the object had left none”, he says. “I really looked for them but
there were none.”

The weather was fine with 3/8 cumulus.

His own comments was: ”I do not know of any single aircraft that would have
been able to – from zero – outfly a ”Draken” at that time.”

He never reported the incident after landing at the airbase F12 in Kalmar
at the time but reported to ground control that the object was gone as he
came to the scene.

“The ground control radar did not look at vertical movements after they had
led me to the target, so when the object started moving upwards it just
seamed to have vanished of the screen for them”, the pilot said.

The incident came to UFO-Sweden's attention when he sent an e-mail to us a
couple of years ago. On June 19th 1999 I made a telephone interview with
him. Sadly he died in a helicopter accident a year after.

There are of course several problems with this observation. I will just
list a few.

Yesterday I had a long telephone conversation with the former commander of the
last Air Force base that flew Draken here in Sweden. I discussed the
observation with him first without telling him the name of the pilot. He
pointed out some problems that we may never get an answer to since the
pilot is now dead.

1. Approaching the target at Mach 0,9 seeing (on the scope) the object
starting to move upwards at the time when the jet is 10 kilometers from the
targets position gives the pilot 30 seconds to react. A fighter flying at
that speed can not be stopped and even if he immediately decided to climb
after the object he most probably would have passed its position before
doing so.
2. All said in #1 probably means that the radar lock would have been lost
and he must try and find the target once again before starting the chase.
3. This is very (very) difficult.
4. The on-board radar was an PS-011 with a range (in perfect conditions) at
40 kilometers, maximum. More probably, if you would like to make a safe
locking, the range was slightly over 20 kilometers.
5. Climbing at 70 degrees is something that very few pilots would have
tried.

All this said I told him the name of the pilot and that made a great
difference to the former commander. He knew him well and had only good
things to say about him. He also said that ”if someone would have made such
a climb that would have been him”. I got the imression that he reevaluated
the incident after hearing who it was doing the chase.

I have not yet had time to listen to my taped interview with the former
commander. There may be other relevant facts that effect the case. He also
urged me to talk with other former J35F pilots. He has promised to read my
transcripts from my interview with the pilot, his emailed report and other
material I have and give me his view again.

I will try and go further on with this in to steps:

1. I will try and trace the radar leader on the ground.
2. I will contact a former radar expert with the Swedish military
intelligence who I have known for fifteen years. He knows of every single
intrusion for decades back. His insights may give me names and new clues.

Since my last mail I have spoken to one of the flight leaders at the radar
station (called ”Myran”, The Ant, and situated in a mountain in the south
of Sweden but defunct since August 2000). He could not recall the incident
which is not to be surprised of since, as he said, ”we scrambled fighters
on every single echo we could not identify at that time, and there were
many”.

He also said that many of the echoes turned out to be anything from birds
to radar angels and that summertime was the time of year with most
atmospheric anomalies. The altitude was measured from a special radar unit
connected to the mountain.

I can not say that I were much more enlighted after this conversation.

I also spoke to one other person that worked at ”Myran” beteween 1977 and
2000. He told me that no records (i.e. war diaries) were archived – all
were burnt after the shut down of the station. That makes it even harder to
find the exact date. The flight leader also told me that they did not make
any notes when an aircraft was scrambled if a positive identification was
not made.

One small anecdote came from the flight leader: In the 1970's many Soviet
”research vessels” were sailing the Swedish borders. All full of listening
devices and other stuff trying to intercept radio traffic. At many
occasions Swedish fighter planes were sent to identify them and several
times had passed the ships fifty meters away or closer breaking the sound
barrier and thus destroying most of the Soviet equipment – probably also
some ear drums. In spite of this no Soviet complaint were ever made.