by UFO Author, Charles Lear
In the April 1971 issue (page 6 of the pdf) No. 1-2 of the Scandinavian Newsletter, published by UFO-Sweden, there is an article headlined “I met a flying saucer.” According to the abstract, the report that follows was first published in the Norwegian weekly magazine Hjemmet and translated into English by Anton Lidström of the Trondheim UFO Society. The case involves an encounter with a flying saucer reported by a man who said he came upon it while driving near Helleland, Norway, at around 5:30 p.m. on October 29, 1970. According to the report, the encounter left him without a windshield, and he seemed to have suffered some physical effects as well.
After the abstract, there is a description of Reidar Salvesen coming in out of a pouring rain into his home in Bregneveien, Vågsbygd. He is said to have been shaking after a 6-hour drive with a plastic sheet taped to his car in place of a windshield and to have gone straight to the couch and sat down without taking off his coat. His explanation to his wife is presented in quotes: “Synnøve, I’ve had a strange experience. I cannot explain it, therefore I must draw it for you. It was a frightening sight, but at the same time fantastic.”Norway 1 and 2Norway 3
According to the report, Salvesen was in his red Hillman Sunbeam on his way home from “his ambulatory job as market-advisor for a sale central” when, after passing Helleland, he spotted a light that the writer compares to a “welding flame.” Salvesen is said to have “stopped short” because the light hurt his eyes. His description of what he saw and what happened after that is presented in quotes:
I opened the door on my side and looked out. That what I saw, I never forget: 10 meters up, a circular object, smooth and bright as if it was nickel-plated. It only was there, noiseless and threatening and without any light. I stopped the motor, went out of the car and was standing beside the door. Then the object was gliding forward seven or eight meters and stopped 5-6 meters in front of the car, in the same height. Instinctively I caught my block which lay in the open bag between the seats, and began to make a sketch of the thing above me. I was convinced now. That was a flying saucer!”
It just hung above my head, bright and shining. I never was really afraid, maybe because I got no time to think about it. The only thing I took into my head was: I must make a sketch, this I will not get another chance to see. The body had neither doors, windows nor hatches. Joints or grooves were not to be seen. No distinguishing marks or flags. The object was bright and shining all over – except for a gilt edge round the body with vertical grooves, like those on a sheet of corrugated iron.
I can’t remember how many seconds that passed – perhaps fifty – but suddenly the saucer mounted, without any noise, straight up in the air at a violent speed. Then I felt I was not able to stand on my feet. I was knocked backwards and landed on my hind part on the road. At the same time I heard a crack – like a rifle-shot – it was the front-pane of my car being smashed, splinters of glass jingled down on the seats and the floor. About one km up in the air, the saucer changed into a fire-ball, but few seconds afterwards, the fire-ball disappeared too. The sky-cover was not very high, owing to the drizzling rain.
According to the article, Salvesen noticed his hand was bleeding and assumed “he must have rubbed himself” when he fell. He went to his car, started it and pulled over to sweep the glass from the seats and the floor. The town of Usland was 12km away, and he needed to hurry to get there before the shops closed so he could get a “plastic-strip” to fill in for his windshield for the rest of the 180km ride home to Kristiansand. Salvesen is said to have felt a strange sensation in his tongue as he was driving “such as after a marcotization [sic] at the dentist.”
The next part of the narrative is confusing. Salvesen is described as having arrived at the cooperative society at “precisely 17.00,” which is 5:00 p.m., and his encounter is said to have occurred at around 5:30 p.m. This is never explained and may have been an error on the part of the writer.
Salvesen is said to have borrowed some tape from the manager there, Ragnar Rise, who is quoted as saying, “I noticed that the man shuddered when he entered the shop, but I thought the reason was that he had driven without front-pane. I cut the plastic strip while he wiped off blood from his fingers. I remember I asked him how the pane had been smashed, but he only answered that such ‘things might happen.’”
The confusion about the time becomes an issue in the case of a testimony from a woman who said that at 17.00 on that same day, she saw a car fitting the description of Salvesen’s car that was missing its windshield 300 meters east of Helleland. Salvesen insisted it wasn’t him.
Besides the strange sensation in his tongue, Salvesen is reported to have experienced other symptoms. According to the article, when he showed his wife his hand the next morning, there was minimal grazing, but the skin peeled off of it when he rubbed his hands together as if it had been sunburned. He is also said to have had red eyes and a sensitivity to light that lasted for two weeks.
According to the article, Salvesen went to the police station in Kristiansand two days later and spoke to a constable there. Chief of Police Eckhoff is quoted as saying “I know Reidar Salvesen since many years. I have had a good deal to do with him. He is sober and trustworthy. I think it is important to give the public knowledge of the case. Maybe we will get some more information that way.”
Salvesen’s car and some of the glass from the windshield is reported to have been examined by people from the Engineer Regiment in Kristiansand and The Defense Research Institute at Kjeller, who didn’t find anything. However, Salvesen’s travel alarm clock is said to have “now kept the time badly after always having been very precise.” According to the article, a watchmaker examined it and “no irregularity, like magnetism etc., was found.”
In response to skeptics in the midst of those who supported Salvesen and those who came forward with their own reports, Salvesen is quoted as saying “Let people only distrust me if they like. In any case, I saw something I cannot explain, something sailing 10 meters above my car. That I will insist upon my dying day. But I should like to see it again, but then with a camera at hand.”
The editor closes with a remark from Mr Halvor Toraskoas of the Christiansands Tidende, who published the first report on the case, ”I have ran extensive checks to control the credibility of Mr Salvesen, all turning out in a positive way for his part.”
A clipping (pages 14 and 15 of the pdf) from the November 4, 1970, Fjerritslev Avis (a newspaper from Denmark) and its English translation describing Salvesen’s reported encounter can be found in the January 1970 issue of the publication of the UFO Research Committee that would become the UFO Newsclipping Service in February 1974. There, Salvesen’s encounter is said to have taken place on November 2, 1970, at 4:40 p.m.