The Björnvik Encounter
While I do love encounters with humanoids and other entities, big and small, my second passion might initially seem a bit too ordinary: close encounters with crafts in Sweden. I’m not talking about the abundance of bright dots in the sky or strange formations flying miles away, which could easily be airplanes, birds, or whatever your imagination conjures up, but rather observations of what appear to be real, physical flying saucers. Particularly, I’m fascinated by the classic flying saucer design — not just the simpler cigar-shaped vehicles and similar forms.
There are a few noteworthy cases in Swedish UFO history, and in this text, I’ll guide you through some of them — leading up to possibly the most intriguing one, the Björkvik encounter of 1989. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
One of my favorite sources for strange stories is internet forums, where someone — often anonymously — shares remarkable tales that are often hard to verify. The same applies to letters sent to magazines. In Sweden, publications like Allers and Hemmets Journal blend grandma’s recipes for meatballs and knitting patterns with some of the strangest reader-submitted stories ever recorded. One of my favorite examples is the Klissberget encounter, a case brimming with high strangeness. You can read my article about it here: We Will Be Back: The 1944 Alien Abduction at Klissberget (link).
Now, let’s return to internet forums. One story I discovered was on Flashback, which for years was the go-to controversial, edgy, and uncensored forum in Sweden. Originally starting as a fanzine of sorts, it evolved into a platform where people share just about everything on their minds — for better or worse. The story was shared by the user Chipmonster1, who recounted an experience told to them by a relative. I’ve translated the post (link) for your enjoyment:
“The event took place in the late 1950s or possibly early 1960s. A relative of mine (who has long since passed away) lived in the countryside and, along with some friends, had been visiting others. They hadn’t consumed any alcohol or drugs; it was just an ordinary late winter evening as they walked home through a small village.
About 30 meters away from them, in an open grassy field, a UFO landed. Unfortunately, no detailed description of its appearance remains, but they recalled a faint, monotonous humming sound emanating from it. A hatch on the side of the craft opened, but one of the group members became so frightened that he started flashing a flashlight at the UFO. In response, the hatch immediately closed, the craft rose into the air, and then shot across the sky at lightning speed.
The group decided not to tell anyone about the incident, fearing they would be dismissed as crazy. Many years later, however, my relative confided the story to someone he trusted (who wasn’t a family member), which is how we eventually learned about it. He never even shared it with his own family.
The beam of light across the sky was witnessed by several others in the village. Reportedly, it was an extremely bright streak that shot across the sky in a split second. One person, who only saw the beam (as far as we know), later became psychotic — or ‘mad,’ as it was described at the time — following the incident.”
Chipmonster1 seems honest, and the post is written in a straightforward manner, without any indication that it stems from their imagination. This makes me believe it describes a real experience. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is what it claims to be — it could be a very subjective account of something that might have a natural explanation or perhaps a dream that, over time, took on the appearance of material reality. The mind can be a tricky thing.
I remember a personal experience when I went to bed and lay there for what seemed like seconds, trying to find peace to sleep. Suddenly, a flood of memories overwhelmed me. I was shocked and terrified because these “memories” suggested I had committed two murders as a teenager and buried the victims somewhere on Frösön, in Jämtland. It took me at least twenty minutes to reason with myself, sit up, and stare at the wall until I understood that none of it was real. It was either a vivid dream that implanted false memories or some other trick of the brain, briefly convincing me that I was guilty of something as horrifying as a double murder. I’ve written more about this experience in my book Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden (link).
In 2005, journalist Lars Rindeskär published a peculiar and quite spectacular account that allegedly took place in the late 1970s. The story was shared with him by two friends, a couple, in 1992, and Rindeskär published it in a local advertising magazine distributed in the Avesta-Krylbo area, near the border between Dalarna and Västmanland.
It was a winter evening, and the couple was driving north. There wasn’t much traffic, and the evening was peaceful. The husband kept his eyes on the road a few hundred meters ahead when he suddenly noticed something large blocking the road. His first thought was that it was a semi-truck stuck in the snow after hitting an icy patch. However, as they got closer, he and his wife became increasingly confused.
This was no ordinary vehicle. They stopped about 25 meters away and had a clear view of the object. It was at least 15 meters wide, extending beyond both sides of the road, and appeared to be made of gray-blue metal. It was, like all classic flying saucers, disc-shaped.
The craft stood firmly on three legs. On its surface, they saw a row of windows, and beneath them, a strip of a different color. While they were watching, another car pulled up behind them. Although the couple noticed the other vehicle, they were too stunned to get out and interact with the other witnesses.
As they continued watching, the three legs retracted into the craft, and the man noticed how the powdered snow beneath it was sucked inward toward the center of the object as it rose. Then, in an instant, the craft disappeared.
“Describe to me what you saw,” the man asked his wife. She confirmed that she had seen exactly the same thing. They barely spoke for the rest of the drive. When they arrived at their destination, they sat down to watch a movie, but all the husband could think about was the strange sight they had witnessed on that winter road.
There are many stories like this, shared privately with friends and family. I may revisit some of them in the future. However, let’s now turn to one of Sweden’s greatest UFO mysteries — the main reason I sat down to write this text.
It all came to light when researcher Håkan Blomqvist gave a talk in Björkvik on the subject of UFO research. It seemed that several people in the small community had seen UFOs, but the most intriguing account came from Kerstin Jonsson and her daughter, Tina.
The year was 1989, and the date was September 9, around 6:10 PM. Kerstin and Tina had just driven Tina’s friend Maria to the bus stop, and on their way back, while driving along Sandviksvägen, Kerstin suddenly noticed something above a group of trees. “What the heck is that?” she asked her daughter, who immediately felt more frightened than curious.
Hovering just above the trees, at a height of about 15 meters from the ground, was what appeared to be a classic flying saucer. It looked matte metallic and seemed to be spinning slowly. Kerstin noticed a few lights on the bottom of the craft — green, yellow, and red.
They stopped almost directly beneath it, getting a clear view. The craft was about five meters in diameter, and they were only 15–20 meters away from it. Kerstin wanted to step out of the car for a closer look. She opened the door and placed her foot on the ground, but Tina, terrified, told her she was crazy and demanded she stay inside.
When the craft began to move slowly, Tina panicked and threw herself into the backseat, crying. Kerstin, however, stayed calm enough to observe the craft more closely. She noticed what appeared to be a round hatch on the bottom and a dome on top. The saucer moved out over the road, then suddenly changed direction and headed over Lake Yngaren, where they eventually lost sight of it. The entire event lasted about ten minutes.
Both were left shocked and stunned. Tina later described the whole experience as feeling unreal. They drove the short distance home and told the rest of the family what they had seen: “We’ve seen a UFO!” Kerstin’s husband, Sture, initially thought they were joking, but when he noticed that Tina had been crying, he took them seriously.
Håkan Blomqvist later interviewed Sture, who confirmed that neither Kerstin nor Tina was prone to making up stories. He added, “They were agitated when they got home. Tina was completely terrified.”
During Project Yngaren, UFO-Sverige investigators went door-to-door in Björkvik, asking residents if they had seen anything unusual. While nothing directly related to this sighting emerged during the project, more witnesses later contacted the investigators but chose to remain anonymous. One of them was a young man who sent a letter describing what he saw. At the time of the incident, he had been 16 years old and witnessed the event from a car with his mother and sister.
“My sister, my mom, and I were in the car, driving home, when we spotted something on the right side of the road in the direction we were heading. We were traveling north-northwest, with Lake Yngaren on our left. Suddenly, my sister shouted that there was a strange dark cloud hovering over the middle of the lake. I looked out and saw something unusual too — an object that didn’t resemble a dark cloud at all. It was round, more oval-shaped, and completely still, showing no signs of movement. We yelled at Mom to stop the car immediately and take a look. She slammed on the brakes, probably thinking we had hit an elk or something.
We all saw the strange shape hanging in the air. It appeared to be at least 7–8 meters long, maybe even 9. It felt enormous and surreal. We got out of the car to get a closer look. No other cars passed by to witness it, but we stood there, frozen by the sight of this object — unlike anything we had ever seen. We tried to figure out if it was some kind of zeppelin, balloon, or aircraft, but we couldn’t make sense of it at all.
Eventually, it seemed to move, and we could only tell that it was dark — matte, not shiny — but we were standing at least 50 meters away, so it was hard to see any details. We thought it was blinking underneath, but it was difficult to be sure. Then, it suddenly disappeared with a jolt — no sonic boom, no disturbance in the water beneath it. It had been hovering just above tree height. The whole experience felt incredibly bizarre. We talked about it for the rest of the evening.”
The Björkvik encounter, with its reliable witnesses and attention to detail, remains unexplained to this day. What Kerstin and Tina saw that evening may never be explained. Perhaps it was something out of the ordinary — visitors from somewhere else. In an interview years later, Kerstin and Tina told reporter Ingemar Norlén that they weren’t scared anymore. Instead, their curiosity was piqued after the incident, and they wondered why the visitors didn’t contact humans. At that point in their lives, there was no doubt in their minds — aliens exist, and they’re visiting planet Earth.
One thing I find fascinating in this already intriguing case is how silence seemed to surround them. Something felt off, or as Kerstin told Ingemar Norlén in his interview with them: “I looked around, and it was eerily quiet and still. Normally, you’d see people on the street, but now it was completely empty — there wasn’t even a child outside. Not a bird could be heard, not a single leaf moved… it was almost unreal, unsettling.”
An example of the famous “Oz factor,” or just total focus making them ignore their surroundings when witnessing something that questions their reality? This world is, as usual, a mystifying, magical place.
Thanks to Archives for the Unexplained, Håkan Blomqvist, UFO-Sverige and Clas Svahn.
Fred Andersson is a Swedish researcher and writer with over twenty years of experience in commercial television and the author of Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden, out now from Beyond the Fray Publishing. Join him on Bluesky and Instagram.
