Den här artikeln på engelska skrev jag i onsdags för att hjälpa en vän i Spanien, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos. Ni som är intresserade av ett gammalt ufofall kan ju läsa den.
CS

THE FILM PHOTO #1 (full frame)

A film taken during the June 30th 1954 total solar eclipse is still discussed by UFO researchers over the world. The pictures were shot aboard Scandinavian Airlines ”Torolf Viking” at 15.000 feet near Lifjell in Telemark in the south of Norway by an associate to Mr Johnny Björnulf, Mr Raun Conradi, but the film is still called the Björnulf film.

The 1954 solar eclipse was 154 seconds long (from Norway) and stretched from Labrador in Canada down over Norway, Sweden and Balticum.

The film was taken through a window on the air crafts left side, to the North, as the air craft was heading South East. That means that the film was taken on the side of the air craft where the sun was not seen; i. e. in the direction were the eclipse could not be seen.

The sequence is two seconds long and the two objects can be seen on 64 frames of film.

There were two different pictures published in the press a few days after the eclipse.

1. The Björnulf (Conradi) film footage showing two objects.
2. A still photo showing one object with a small tail. Also attributed to Björnulf.

When it comes to picture #1 I have a very good first generation copy made from the original film. As for the still picture, #2, I only have access to the published print in Swedish and Norwegian press.

The two pictures are taken at seperat times. #1 to the North when the air craft is heading back into Norway and #2 to the South as the aircraft is heading outwards from the Norwegian coast. This can be deducted from the position of the sun and the wing seen on picture #2.

As far as I have been able to find picture #2 is also from a film, this one taken by Björnulf himslef. In an article in the newspaper Varden July 9th it says that Mr Björnulf also took some pictures with his 35 mm camera showing ”one large saucer and two smaller”. That film was to be shot from a different position in the air craft. These ”saucers” were also the ones discovered first by Björnulf. The Conradi pictures were found later.

In a United Press telegram (Oslo July 7, see below) Mr Björnulf states that he discovered the objects after the film was shot, while showing it to the public. He says: ”My personal opinion is that the shining white spots on the pictures are some reflex phenomena”

It is important to remember that the film was taken through the window of the aircraft. The window can clearly be seen in the pictures published.

That Mr Björnulf filmed through a window was confirmed in a letter from professor Eberhart Jensen, director of Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (March 31st 1970) to NICAP's J. J. A. Hennessey. Professor Jensen writes: ”I remember very well the circumstances under which the film that you mention was taken. I was not on board that particular plane, but flew in another one on a parallel course. Our plane was a Heron with open hatches through which we filmed the sun. Mr Björnulf took his film through a closed window in the other plane and the elliptical lights you mention are due to reflections. This was proved the next day when a team headed by Dr J. V. Garwick and Mr R. Brahde reproduced exactly the same light patterns in the plane on the ground by turning it in the proper direction relative to the sun.”

The objects were seem only after the film was developed in London a week after the eclipse. However Mr Björnulf later claimed that the film was taken through an open window, (window number 2 from the back) hence it could not be a reflection.

In an April 13th 1970 letter from the above mentioned Rolf Brahde to J. J. A. Hennessey Mr Brahde describes his experiment. But he also tells Mr Hennessey that it was not Mr Björnulf himself who held the camera on the occasion but an associate with him Mr Raun Conradi. From the letter it is clear that Mr Björnulf did what he could to make Mr Brahde not to make any contact with Mr Conradi. When contacted about the windows Mr Conradi says, according to Mr Brahde: ”On my question about the open windows during the flight he answered that of course the windows had been closed, it was impossible to be in the cabin with open windows.”

In a statement printed in Aftenposten October 14th 1954 Mr Conradi says: ”Since I were not allotted a seat at an open window I had to lean over Mr Hverven, who was filming through an open window, during the totality.” He also adds: ”I have stressed to both the journalist Mr (Tore) Haug and photographer Björnulf that they [the ”saucers”] to me looked very much like reflections and that I could not discount this section of the film to be filmed through a glass window.”

In another letter from Dr Garwick to Mr Hennessey the experiment is described. Even though most of the windows were closed, two in the aft were open. The two last windows on the air crafts port side. Could it be that Mr Björnulfs photographer had taken the shots from them? A new film was taken from both of the two windows and and from a third one, right in front of them. Dr Garwick writes: ”The team took pictures out of the three last windows with the same camera which was used on the flight. These pictures were superimposed upon the pictures showing the light spots and it was found that the wing perspective fitted exactly for the pictures from the third (paned) window and with no others.”

The team investigating the film not only proved from which window it was taken (window 3 from the back) but also placed a light source in the opposite window and were able to re-create a reflection very similar to the ”Björnulf UFOs”. The reflections were created by the frame of one of the windows at the right side of the air craft and then seen as two 'saucers' in the left side window from which the film was taken. The team published its findings in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten October 14th 1954.

In Flying Saucer Review No 1 Vol 2 1956 a Mr E Graham, described as The Swedish Travel Bureau's London Press Officer, stated that all persons in the aircraft where Mr Björnulf had a seat had seen the two objects flying outside in the sunlight while the plane still was in the moon shadow. Mr Graham also says, according to FSR, that no one took any pictures of the objects until Mr Björnulf ”trained his object finder on the discs and began filming”.

This statement is curious since we know from Mr Conradi that it was he and not Mr Björnulf who took the film. Mr Conradi's description of what happened is not as dramatic as the one printed in FSR. Johnny Björnulf also says in an interview in Aftenposten tha ”the objects were not seen in the viewfinder at the time of the filming”.

There are several other problems with Mr Grahams story. According to him all other cameramen were so fascinated by the objects that no one used his camera. That seems highly unlikely since many newsmen and photographers were on board the flight.

The time of the observation is given to be 2.17 PM in the FSR article and according to Mr Graham ”the objects were out in the sun, while we were still in the shadow of the eclipse” at that time. Since the eclipse started in Western Norway at around 1.30 PM and had moved into Lithuania by 2.00 PM there was no moon shadow left in the vicinity of Lifjell for a long time at the time Mr Graham says the observation was made.

The picture printed in FSR is also the very same picture that have been proven to be a reflection of light in the window.

In spite of Mr Grahams description of an air craft full of people seeing the ”saucers” there is no single eye witness to be found in any of the many news paper articles that were printed after the eclipse.

By looking at the motion picture it is easy to see that the two ”saucers” are not objects flying outside the aircraft. This fact was also mentioned by other viewrs at the time. One example is Mr Gunnar Svensson:

In Verdens Gang October 1st 1954 Mr Svensson writes: ”It is easy to see that the aircraft moves in respect to the layer of clouds while the 'flying saucers' are stationary. 'The saucers' have the wrong path of movement in respect to their oval forms. They moves parallel to the horizone and not diagonally as they should if following their positions.”

There are many statements in the press that seems to be rather exaggerated. One is that the person (Mr Grønseth) sitting in front of Mr Conradi had vouched for that Conrad sat behind him, at the open window, during the filming. But approached by Brahde, Christensen and Garwick Mr Grønseth said the he had been sitting at the front seats during the flight and never had been asked to vouch for Mr Conradi.

In some articles the #1 pictures are said to show two ”flying saucers with a shockwave seen in front of them”. But the shockwave is just the window frames reflecting in the glass.

CONCLUSION
It is clear that the ”Björnulf footage” shows an external light source reflecting in the double windows of the airplane. You can clearly see the two elongated ”UFOs” coinciding with the corners of the double windows. In the film you can see that the spots do not move in relation to the aircraft but stays in the same position relative to the window reflection all the time. The reflection of the window in the picture is in itself evidence for that the film was taken through a closed window.

Looking at the film gives clear evidence that the two objects are firmly attached to the lower left corner of the window used during the whole sequence. It is important to note that the reflections are not from the window closest to the camera but from one opposite to it. That window is seen reflecting itself in the window used by Mr Conradi to film through.

Mr Conradi, who was the real photographer makes it very clear in an interview in Aftenposten that he never saw the ”saucers” but after the film was shown back on Earth.

The statement in FSR from Mr Graham is flawed on several key issues. My conclusion is that the article in FSR is not reliable and that Mr Grahams description of what happened inside tha air craft in in most parts ficticious.

CLAS SVAHN
UFO-Sweden

Other pictures from the solar eclipse can be viewed at: Dagbladet

THE FILM PHOTO #1 (enlargement of the ”UFOs”)

THE UNITED PRESS TELEGRAM (July 7th 1954)

THE STILL PHOTO (From Expressen July 7th 1954)
THIS PHOTO IS ALSO PUBLISHED IN Aftenposten July 6th 1954.
PROBABLY SHOT BY BJÖRNULF.

A PICTURE TAKEN FROM KEFLAVIK, ICELAND, AT 12.20 ON THE DAY OF THE SOLAR ECLIPSE. THIS ONE SHOWS A TYPICAL LENS FLARE

THE FOUR FIRST AND THE FOUR LAST FRAMES OF FILM FROM THE SEQUENCE PUBLISHED IN ADRESSEAVISEN (Trondheim) July 8th 1954.