The Falcon Lake incident is a case of observing two unidentified flying objects near the resort village of Falcon Lake in Canada on May 20, 1967 [1] .
The only witness to the incident was Stefan Michalak. The incident was investigated by a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the police and the Canadian Air Force. The result of the investigation was the conclusion that there were no facts directly confirming or refuting the testimonies of Mikhalak. In general, the story of Mikhalak was considered reliable [2] .
Content
The essence of the incident
Falcon Lake is located in the very south of Whiteshell Park in the east of Manitoba , on the shore of Lake Falcon (which gave the village its name). On May 19, 1967, amateur geologist Stefan Mikhalak arrived from Winnipeg to study quartz veins near the village (such veins often contain silver ). After spending the night at the motel, Mikhalak set off north into the park early in the morning of May 20.
At about 12:15 pm, Mikhalak, who had been researching rocks in the vicinity of Falcon Lake for several hours, suddenly heard the cries of wild geese, which were clearly disturbed by something. Looking up, he saw two cigar-shaped objects in the sky emitting a reddish glow. One of the objects stopped in the air, while the second landed on a large flat rock about 160 feet from Mikhalak. By that time, it became clear that both objects are not cigar-shaped, but disk-shaped. The object remaining in the air hovered for a while over the observation site, then flew away towards the west, changing its color from red to orange and gray in flight.
The next half hour Mikhalak spent making a sketch of the object that remained on the ground. After landing, he also changed his color from red to the color of “hot stainless steel” (according to Mikhalak), with a golden glow around him. The object was in the shape of a classic "flying saucer", about 40 feet in diameter, and 10 feet thick, with a dome about another 3 feet high. Some of the holes in the walls of the object emitted a very bright glow, so Mikhalak had to put on welding glasses, which he wore with him to protect his eyes from fragments of stone. He also noted that a strong stream of warm air "with the smell of sulfur" was coming from the object, and he also heard a noise similar to the noise of a working electric motor and the whistle of intake air.
Finally, Mikhalak decided to approach the entrance to the object about 60 feet. An entrance, measuring approximately 2 by 3 feet, was open, and light was visible behind it. Mikhalak heard two voices from inside the object, similar to human ones - one of a higher timbre than the other. By that time, he was sure that he was seeing in front of him some kind of experimental apparatus belonging to the US Air Force and accidentally falling into the territory of Canada, and therefore came even closer to the entrance and said sarcastically in English: “Okay, Yankee boys, having trouble? Come on out and we'll see what we can do about it . " After that, both voices subsided, but Mikhalak did not wait for an answer. Perplexed, he decided to ask in Russian: "Do you speak Russian?" Having not received an answer again, he repeated the question in German, Italian, French and Ukrainian, and finally again in English, all to no avail.
During World War II, Mikhalak was an intelligence officer, so he knew a lot of languages and was well versed in military technology - however, he never had to deal with anything like that. In the end, curiosity got the better of fear, and he decided to look inside the device. Inside, he saw a panel with many indicators that light up and go out in random order, like computers of that time, and beams of light horizontally and diagonally. The object's wall was approximately 18 inches thick. Suddenly, three panels closed the entrance to the device from different sides, but Mikhalak managed to remove his head from the entrance. Outside, the object looked carefully polished, without any seams. Mikhalak touched its surface with a gloved hand, but quickly pulled it away when the glove began to melt. The object suddenly turned the other side, and in front of Mikhalak there was something similar to a ventilation grill measuring about 9 by 6 inches, with holes about 1/16 inch in diameter. An exhaust of very hot gas escaped from the grill, which set fire to Mikhalak's shirt. Mikhalak quickly tore off his shirt and shirt, and when he recovered from pain, he felt a breath of air caused by an object rising up.
Health Implications of Michalak
When the device disappeared from view, Mikhalak felt a strong smell of burned electrical wiring, mixed with the smell of sulfur already familiar to him. He returned to the place where he had left his things, and noticed that the arrow of his compass was demagnetized. Then he returned to the seat of the apparatus, and immediately felt nauseous and a fit of severe headache.
The seat looked clear of twigs and small stones, but it was surrounded by a ring of dirt, leaves, and pine needles about 15 feet in diameter. Mikhalak wanted to continue his inspection, but by that time he felt worse and worse, he vomited, and he decided to return to the motel. Along the way, he vomited several more times, and he had to stop to restore strength.
When he reached the highway, he saw a police car and tried to stop it. She drove past him, but returned a few minutes later. Nevertheless, the policeman did not show much interest in Mikhalak's story, said that he had enough affairs without it, and left.
Somewhere at 4 pm Mikhalak finally reached the motel, where he was told that the nearest doctor was 45 miles from Falcon Lake. Feeling poisoned and not wanting to go even further from home, Mikhalak decided to return home to Winnipeg. From the motel, he called the Winnipeg Tribune, but since it was a Saturday afternoon, there was almost no one in the editorial office and they did not listen to him (all the more so because he asked primarily for help, and not for publishing his story). In addition, he called his wife and son, and asked to meet him at the bus stop in Winnipeg. When he arrived in Winnipeg at about 10:15 pm, his son immediately sent him to the hospital.
In the next two years, Mikhalak was examined by more than a dozen doctors in the USA and Canada, and became the object of interest for a very large number of governmental and non-governmental organizations. Despite the large scale of the investigation, the essence of the incident with Mikhalak has not been established. Nevertheless, doctors more or less unanimously concluded that:
- Michalak was mentally healthy, and not prone to delusions or hallucinations;
- Mikhalak’s blood tests showed nothing unusual, except for a reduced number of lymphocytes (however, a month after the incident, their number also returned to normal);
- on the chest and stomach of Mikhalak, oval ulcers were found that resemble 1st-degree burns and are arranged in a grid (which corresponds to the testimony of Mikhalak about the burn through the “ventilation net”).
- although Mikhalak’s condition improved dramatically 2 weeks after the incident, health problems (including hair loss, lack of appetite, weight loss and weakness) continued for several more months. According to the radiologist Horace Dudley, the incident with Mikhalak is a classic case of radiation sickness , which could be caused by a dose of about 100-200 x-rays of gamma radiation.
Further investigation
At the end of May 1967, the police began an official investigation of the incident, but the police could not find his place according to the description of Mikhalak. On June 1, Mikhalak was taken to Falcon Lake, but he himself could not find the scene of the incident, which further exacerbated the distrust of his testimony. In addition, it became known that on the night before the incident he drank several bottles of beer, but in the end this was not given much importance.
On June 26, Mikhalak finally managed to remember exactly where he observed the objects. Having gone to this place, the policemen found Mikhalak’s personal belongings left on the day of the incident, and also took soil samples. The test results of these samples for radioactivity were negative; however, on July 28 traces of radioactive material were found in a semicircle around the center of the landing site. The diameter of this semicircle was about 15 feet, and there was no moss around its perimeter. Tests showed that this radioactive material was radium-226, a radium isotope widely used for commercial purposes and also found in nuclear waste.
In subsequent years (until 1992), there were reports from other eyewitnesses who allegedly saw unusual objects in the sky over the vicinity of Falcon Lake at about the same time as the incident with Mikhalak. The sketches made from the words of these eyewitnesses, in general, coincide with the sketches of Mikhalak.
Stefan Mikhalak died in 1999 at the age of 83. The Falcon Lake incident remains unsolved and still attracts considerable interest from researchers.
Notes
- ↑ Chris Rutkowski & Geoff Dittman "The Canadian UFO Report: The Best Cases Revealed . " Toronto: Dundurn Press Ltd, 2006. ISBN 978-1-55002-621-4 .
- ↑ Billy Booth " 1967 - The Falcon Lake UFO Encounter . " (eng.)