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Finnish Pilots Say UFOs Are Real. Radar Data Finally Proves They're Right

Writer's picture: Cristina GomezCristina Gomez

From mysterious abductions and military encounters to unexplained aerial phenomena, Finland's most bizarre UFO sightings have left investigators puzzling over what's behind these remarkable cases that span more than a century of documented evidence. Finland, with its vast wilderness and sparsely populated regions, has become an unexpected hotspot for UFO activity throughout the 20th century. Despite the country’s tendency toward privacy and discretion regarding such matters, numerous compelling cases have emerged from this Nordic nation, documenting encounters that range from mysterious disappearances to military confrontations.


UFO Takes Children for Weeks

One of the earliest documented cases occurred in 1900 in the Kuhmo’s Lentiira region, where four children vanished while picking cloudberries in a swampy, wooded area. After several weeks of searching, they were found mysteriously unharmed under a pine tree that search teams had previously examined numerous times. The children’s account was extraordinary: they claimed to have been taken aboard a craft by humanoid beings and shown views of Earth from space. Remarkably, despite their weeks-long absence, they appeared clean and well-nourished. This was documented in the book UFOs, Humanoids and Strange Phenomena of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia and Scandinavia by George Mitrovic.

painting of children in the forest playing and relaxing. this is the painting called Childeren Playing In A Forest By Servin Amédée-Élie (1858)
Children Playing In A Forest By Servin Amédée-Élie (1858)

By 1917 a woman named Anni Lattu experienced what modern researchers would classify as an alien abduction, though the incident wasn’t publicly documented until June 9, 1978, in the newspaper Kurkijokelainen. The case, according to the book written by George Mitrovic, began when Lattu mysteriously vanished from her home in Jyrinvaara for several days in 1917. Upon her return, rather than confirming neighbors’ assumptions about visiting her daughter, Lattu described encountering a large craft shaped like a washbasin that had landed beside her house. According to her account, small beings emerged using a ladder and, despite her being able to partially understand their language, forcibly took her aboard after she declined their invitation. She claimed to have been taken on a journey around Earth and among the stars.

front cover of the Finish Newspaper called Kurkijokelainen
Newspaper Kurkijokelainen

The case gained additional context through later investigation by UFO Research of Finland investigator Mauritz Hietamäki, who interviewed one of Lattu’s former neighbors, identified only as “Mrs. N.N.” The interview revealed that Lattu, born in 1873, lived a somewhat solitary life despite being married — her husband Juho outlived her by 11 years after her death in 1930. Particularly noteworthy is how the incident was interpreted through the cultural lens of the time: lacking modern UFO terminology, villagers and Lattu herself referred to the beings as “devils,” a classification that persisted until her death.


Pori UFO Incident

The Pori UFO incident of April 12, 1969, stands as Finland’s most compelling aerial mystery and holds the distinction of being the only UFO case officially recognized and investigated by the Finnish Air Force. Known locally as “The Seven Balloons of Pori,” the event began when Jouko Kuronen of the Finnish Armed Forces overheard a radio exchange between the airport commander and pilot Tarmo Tukeva regarding seven yellow, disc-shaped objects hovering in formation above Pori Airport at an altitude between 1,500 and 3,000 meters.


The credibility of the sighting was reinforced by multiple forms of verification. Both Kuronen’s private radar and the airport’s ground control systems detected and tracked the objects, confirming their physical presence in the airspace. As Tukeva approached in his Fouga Magister aircraft for closer investigation, he verified their disc-like appearance, though exact distance estimation proved challenging due to the lack of reference points in the sky.

radar image of the several objects seen in Pori Finland in 1969
Alleged Radar Image of UFOs over Pori

The most extraordinary aspect of the encounter came when the objects suddenly accelerated northward. Despite Tukeva’s aircraft traveling at approximately 435 mph (700 km/h), he reported that his plane seemed practically stationary compared to the objects’ velocity. Ground control later confirmed the objects had been detected over Vaasa, 110 miles from Pori Airport, just moments after their departure — demonstrating speeds far beyond any known aircraft capabilities of the era. The incident’s documentation by Finland’s national public broadcasting company, Yle, and its continued unexplained status have secured its place as a cornerstone case in Finnish UFO research.

Fouga Magister aircraft flying in the sky
Fouga Magister aircraft

The Finnish Air Forces magazine, Rutuvaki, reported the incident in its April 12th edition, comparing it to other cases occurring over bodies of water during military exercises. While officials attempted to explain away the incident as possible Soviet reconnaissance aircraft, this explanation seemed more hopeful than conclusive. The case bears striking similarities to both historical Foo Fighter encounters from World War II and modern military UFO encounters, where pilots observe and sometimes pursue unidentified craft demonstrating superior flight capabilities. Despite attempts to classify the incident as conventional aircraft, the Pori UFO case remains one of Finland’s most well-documented and credible military UFO encounters with no official explanation.


Don’t Shoot a UFO in Finland

One of Finland’s most disturbing military UFO encounters occurred at an Air Force base near Rovaniemi in Northern Finland in 1974, when a guard stationed on a hilltop above a storage facility encountered a metallic object emitting a blue glow as it landed nearby. The incident took a dramatic turn when the guard, approaching within 30 meters, opened fire with their machine gun, causing the object to glide away behind the ramparts. The consequences were severe: the guard later developed unexplained burn marks on their skin, and significant electromagnetic disturbances were detected in the area during the encounter. This incident was preceded by a related event where a Draken fighter experienced an unusual generator fire, with radar detecting an unidentified object following the damaged aircraft until its emergency landing.


The full scope of these incidents and their investigation remains shrouded in mystery, as the Intelligence Office of the Finnish Air Force allegedly destroyed relevant documentation of the encounters.


Seeing UFO Made Them Sick

On January 7, 1970, when woodsman Arno Heinonen (36) and farmer Esko Viljo, both competitive skiers, experienced a close encounter in Imjarvi, about 15 kilometers northwest of Heinola in southern Finland. At 4:45 PM, during a skiing practice session in -17 degrees Celsius weather, the men paused to catch their breath and observed the unclouded sunset. Their peaceful moment was interrupted when they noticed a strange craft descending toward them, accompanied by a buzzing sound that, while noticeable, wasn’t irritating.


The craft, described as round and surrounded by a red-gray fog that became increasingly transparent as it descended, stopped approximately four meters above them. According to their testimony, one of the witnesses felt as if someone had seized him from behind, and at that moment, they observed a humanoid creature standing in a beam of light. The being, approximately 90 centimeters tall, had very thin arms and legs, a pale wax-like face, and most distinctively, a hook-like nose. It wore a light green overall with dark green boots extending above the knees, white gauntlets up to its elbows, and carried a black box with a pulsating yellow light. The entire encounter lasted only 15–20 seconds before the being and craft vanished instantaneously, leaving no trace.

3 images of Artist Renditions
of the Imjarvi ufo encounter
Artist Renditions

The encounter proved particularly significant, as both men developed severe physical symptoms. Arno experienced difficulty walking, facial swelling, and nausea severe enough to cause him to vomit in the snow. Most unusually, he reported his urine had turned black. These symptoms were serious enough to warrant investigation by multiple medical experts, including professionals at the University of Helsinki, radiologists, and surgeons, though no conventional explanation for their conditions was ever determined. While the initial encounter was well-documented and taken seriously by investigators, the case became more controversial when Viljo later claimed repeated contacts with aliens (about 23 visits), including alleged evidence such as a green pen and a rock from another planet, both of which mysteriously disappeared before they could be examined.

article image of the Scandinavian workshop addressing the UFO sightings in Finland. Written in the MUFON Magazine in 1980
MUFON Magazine 1980


2 Comments


Philip Fox
Philip Fox
Feb 01

Very interesting. I've never heard of these cases before.

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Ion Storm
Ion Storm
Feb 01

Thanks Cristina.

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