SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 10 JUNE-15 JULY 1954

This Central Intelligence Agency report, dated September 22, 1954, compiles information from various European newspapers regarding sightings of unidentified flying objects between June 10 and July 15, 1954. In Finland, several reports were documented. Following a solar eclipse on June 30, 1954, photographs were taken in Helsinki of a round object that was not a cloud or the moon, described as having an illuminated upper edge. In Maarianhamina, a cigar-shaped object was photographed in the sky. Another sighting occurred on July 15, 1954, near Pulkkila, where an oblong object was observed flying at high altitude in the direction of Haapavesi-Nivala; it appeared grey from the rear and maintained the speed of an ordinary plane for several minutes. In Norway, photographer Johnny Bjoernulf captured color motion pictures of unidentified flying objects during the total solar eclipse. These objects were described as two shining disks with condensation trails, moving at great speed in the direction opposite to that of the airplane from which they were filmed at an altitude of 4,500 meters. Finally, in Hallein, Austria, a contractor reported to the gendarmerie that he and two other men observed a strange object over the Tennen Mountains shortly after midnight on June 7, 1954. The object was described as gleaming red, approximately three times the size of Venus, and moved spasmodically in both vertical and horizontal directions, remaining in view for two hours.