Martin's hunt for UFOs in South Greenland brought him closer to his roots

When Martin Kleist's cousin was killed in an accident at the age of 26 in August 2023, it sent a shock through him and his family.

But somehow it also awakened something inside him.

- I pondered a lot about what I had really spent my life on.

Martin Kleist was then 29 years old, lived on Holmen in Copenhagen, was a lawyer and had worked in all the great places. When his cousin died, it was as if someone had overturned and smashed a glass of wine. It left a mark.

- She had left a big imprint. There were simply so many people in the church, and it really made a big impression on me, he remembers.

- I didn't know what anything in life would be like – I still don't know, but it planted such an existential anxiety in me.

The cousin's accident coincided with Martin Kleist being contacted by a now former Greenlandic helicopter pilot who claimed to have seen something very strange in the sky when he was about to land in Narsarsuaq.

- He had seen an oval, luminous object hanging near a cloud cover. It was, of course, a completely wild story in itself, but what he also told me was that in Narsausuaq they regularly saw these strange luminous phenomena, says Martin Kleist.

The UFO phenomenon is something that has almost always preoccupied Martin Kleist – and which he also often returns to in his podcast UFOrklarligt.

- And I quickly found out that there was actually a rather rich history to unknown phenomena in the airspace of Greenland.

He later went to Narsarsuaq to try to find out what it was that several citizens of the town were experiencing, and to capture the strange lights on camera.

This led to several trips to South Greenland – and the beginning of a personal journey for Martin Kleist and his family.

The distance to Greenland had become great

When Sermitsiaq's journalist speaks to Martin Kleist, he is sitting next to his mother, Bente Kleist, in her living room in Slagelse.

It was her that he often FaceTimed while he was in Greenland to hunt UFOs.

- He was just happy. He rested with himself. For me – from the outside – it was as if he had come home, she says, looking at her son.

Bente Kleist's mother was born and raised in Sisimiut. When her mother was 17, she became pregnant with twins – Bente Kleist and her sister – and then moved to Denmark, where she lived until she died four years ago.

Apart from trips to Sisimiut to visit family while growing up, Greenland did not occupy much of Bente Kleist's consciousness afterwards. However, she remembers the trips to Greenland as fantastic.

- We were with my grandmother and went sailing a lot and pitched tents out in the mountains. I think back on that as something really nice, she says.

Bente Kleist and her mother had a turbulent relationship, and there was not always contact between them. As she grew older, the distance to Greenland grew.

Today it is 40 years since Bente Kleist last set foot on Greenlandic soil.

When Bente Kleist later had children of her own – a daughter and a son – she didn’t make a big deal of letting the family’s Greenlandic origins fill the air.

- No, not at all. The only connection they had to Greenland was when we visited my mother, says Bente Kleist.

Still, it was like returning home when the whole family went to Greenland in Tivoli in Copenhagen or saw Christmas greetings to Greenland on television, recalls Martin Kleist.

- I have always been curious about my Greenlandic origins, and I remember a family connection, he says.

When he was visiting his grandmother as a child, she often spoke Greenlandic on the phone and served suaasat.

- I think it sounded exciting when my grandmother spoke on the phone. The language sounded exciting and cool – but I also remember thinking, what is it?

He got a taste of what it was for the first time when he spent two or three weeks in Ilulissat in 2019 as a guide.

- Everyone looks like you, was one of the first things he told his mother when he called home.

The second time he went to Greenland was after his cousin's death and the message from the helicopter pilot about the unexplained lights in the night sky.

The lights were satellites

Martin Kleist went to South Greenland several times in connection with the UFO project. On an approach to Narsarsuaq he was allowed to go up into the cockpit.

Everything was golden in the afternoon sun and they flew low between the mountains.

- It was undoubtedly the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced. It was almost divine in some way, says Martin Kleist.

He was completely taken aback by his own emotions.

- I don't know what it was. But when I got out of the plane, I was so emotionally overwhelmed by it that I was of course very moved, he says.

- It touched on something that I probably don't even know what it really is.

In Narsarsuaq, at one point, it was possible to observe and film some of the strange lights in the sky. However, they turned out to be satellites.

However, the fascination with the things that people in Narsarsuaq and other places in Greenland have seen has not been extinguished.

- The UFO phenomenon is, as always, a bit on the edge of reality, in one way or another. I have heard of so many reports, especially from South Greenland, that cannot be explained just by being satellites, says Martin Kleist.

- What we observed were satellites, but I definitely believe that there is more to the story than just that.

An unexpected inner journey

The approach to Narsarsuaq was not the only time Martin Kleist experienced being emotionally affected by being away. He describes that he experienced an intense longing for his family.

- It's not like I miss my family in my daily life. But I really did up there. It was as if it filled more for me than the UFO thing, he says.

That's why it became important for Martin Kleist that his family go with him to Greenland.

And this summer it happens - the Kleist family is traveling to Sisimiut and Ilulissat. Including mother and son, there are a total of five of them who are going. Among them is Bente Kleist's twin sister, Martin Kleist's aunt.

- Because of my somewhat complicated relationship with my mother, I have never thought about going up there. Not at all – but now we're going, says Bente Kleist.

- Yes, it took a bit of taking over – but it'll be fine, says her son.

Bente Kleist agrees.

- I'm looking forward to holding Martin's hand when we land up there, she says.

The last time Martin Kleist was in Narsarsuaq in connection with the UFO hunt was in December 2024. Although he failed to film a UFO, he is far from finished with the story, he says.

- Because it really deserves to be told.

But what started as an intense quest to film and explain the strange light phenomena in Greenland has for Martin Kleist ended up developing into an inner personal journey.

- As cliché as it may sound, he says.

Since his cousin's death and the crisis it triggered inside him, something has slowly begun to gather.

- There are at least some things inside of myself that I have come closer to thanks to the trips in Greenland, he says, adding:

- And I would like to give that to my mother and my aunt – because their relationship with Greenland is probably a bit more complicated than mine is,

He looks over at his mother.

- And as a family, we have all sorts of good reasons to live life while it is.