Reports of Unidentified Flying Object – Further Corroboration
The highlight of the itinerary was without a doubt a visit with a resident of Norseman who was in the Nullarbor area at the time of the Knowleses’ encounter and had a report of his own experience . Not only did this key witness pro vide me with accommodation and hospitality in his home, but spent many hours driving me to the spot where the car had skidded, and over several miles around the Nullarbor Plain.
The witness reported that soon after daylight on the day of the event, fiber-like substance was scattered in places along the bitumen highway for about three-quarters of a mile from where the Knowleses’ car was dropped. At that time he did not realize that the material was associated with the UFO. As he picked up some of the fibers, they crumbled into a powder or dust between his fingers. The dust was similar to graphite, only much lighter.
A few days later this man began to suffer an illness similar to the Knowles family, only his symptoms were more severe. He was admitted to a hospital but did not report the mysterious experience because he feared ridicule. Nevertheless , efforts are now being made to deter mine whether or not the illness was related .
It now appears that dust samples vacuumed from inside the car were the best samples , free of contamination from outside sources. The apparatus used to analyze the dust was a scanning electron microscope with an EDAX analyzer and ECON detector. Some of the particles were magnified 5,000 times.
The mention of possible astatine in the samples aroused my curiosity, since I had suspected some sort of radiation that did not show up by the time the car had reached South Australia, where it was checked for radiation but found to be negative. My reason for thinking radiation was involved was due to the swelling of Faye’s arm, hair falling from the dog in patches, and other symptoms.
Astatine is a radioactive chemical element that has no stable isotopes. It was synthetically produced in 1940 at the University of California, where scientists bombarded bismuth with accelerated alpha particles (helium nuclei) to yield the element 85 Astatine. After the reaction, it has a half-life of only seven to eight hours before decaying. The Knowleses did not arrive in Ceduna, South Australia, until 1 :00 p.m. after the pre-dawn encounter. Naturally, the astatine, if that is what it was, would have decayed by that time.
One hour after the Knowleses left Mundrabilla, they stopped at the Border Village Service Station to inquire about the cost of a tire. The service station attendant with whom I spoke said, “I thought at first the four were trying to be funny when they were telling me about their experience. They were excited and scared. When I got near the car I noticed an odor similar to that of hot insulation, and there was definitely a scent like ozone”