KNOWLES FAMILY UFO MYSTERY SOLVED
The strange encounter experienced by the Knowles family on the Nullarbor Plain must be one of the most significant sightings of a UFO of all time. The sheer volume of physical evidence and witnesses involved in this story and our inability to discover the truth is absolutely amazing. The investigation into this incident has so far centred around trying to explain it in terms of an unknown phenomenon or a possible alien encounter. This is not the case.
The attack on the Knowles family was orchestrated and carried out by a well resourced paramilitary organisation operating in Australia, using a sophisticated helicopter with specialised lifting equipment. The Knowles’ involvement was purely accidental. They were not the intended target and were attacked only because they resembled the real target group who were also travelling on the same road that night. The nature of this covert action by this paramilitary group and the importance of the assassination attempt on the real target group are now shrouded in secrecy and cover-up and nobody wants the truth to be revealed. I have investigated this event from day one and have now reached a plausible explanation that I would like to share with you.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED
On the evening of the 20 January 1988 Faye Knowles and her three sons, Patrick, Sean and Wayne, were on their way from Perth to Melbourne. Sean was driving when they were between Madura and Mundrabilla. An observer from the paramilitary group must have wrongly identified the Knowles family as the target group and details of their vehicle and location were passed on to the attack helicopter waiting out on the Nullarbor Plain.
At 1.45 am the Knowles family had reached the attack zone, a lonely flat piece of landscape where low level flying could be carried out safely. When the helicopter crew spotted their car they turned on their powerful spotlight and began to fly directly towards them. The plan was to night blind the driver and force the car to stop or crash. If the helicopter had succeeded in stopping the car the family would have been murdered on the spot. The helicopter was equipped with sophisticated lifting equipment in the form of a high-powered electro magnet attached to a long steel cable. For the crew of the chopper it would have been a simple matter of attaching the magnet onto the car roof, lifting the car off the ground, flying over the Southern Ocean, which is 50 km away, and dumping them into a watery grave.
The Knowles’s initially thought that the spotlight on the helicopter was a truck with one head light which was driving erratically, but according to Patrick, as they approached it, it looked more like an object hovering above an old station wagon. Other reports by the Knowles’s have described the helicopter as a huge glowing thing, a weird looking thing, a car and a caravan or even an egg in an egg cup. These discrepancies are not surprising when you consider the split second glance they had as they swerved around the light beam. The truth is that Sean swerved to avoid the light beam, which was projected 20 metres in front of the helicopter and nearly collided with the craft.
Sean Knowles had evaded the first attack and was now accelerating eastwards. The helicopter turned around and began to chase their car from behind. It flew past them and probably intended to get in front of them again to have another go at running them off the road. Sean had other ideas. He turned the car around and then sped off in a westerly direction. The chopper crew must have realised that this cat and mouse game could continue all night and made a desperate attempt to attach the electro magnet onto the moving car and hoist it off the road. Now hovering above the speeding car they lowered the electromagnet onto the roof of the car and switched it on. The Knowles’s heard a clunking noise as the electromagnet was attached and felt the weight of the magnet pushing the car down. The car was bathed in the intense light of the spotlight and the static electricity from the electromagnet made their hair stand on end. The high voltage of the magnet running through the car’s electrical system begun to heat the wiring causing the insulation to smoke and emit the foul smell the occupants experienced. They wound down the windows and were engulfed by dust, soot and exhaust fumes, which were whirling around beneath the chopper. Mrs Knowles felt the car being lifted, so she reached onto the car roof and touched a spongy shock insulator, which surrounded the electromagnet that she later described, felt like a suction pad. The hot exhaust fumes that were being emitted from the jet engines also burnt her hand. The placement of the electro magnet directly above Mrs Knowles in the back seat indicated that the magnet was not placed in a central position, which made it impossible to pick the car cleanly off the road. As soon as the car was lifted it began to swing violently from side to side. Sean reported that at this point the speedometer indicated 200 km/h. This was because his foot was still on the accelerator and the front wheels were freewheeling with no road resistance.
Inside the car the rotor blades of the helicopter created a pounding and compressing effect around the Knowles family. Their voices began to quiver and they seemed to be talking in slow motion as the pressure affected their hearing and speech. The swinging car beneath the helicopter now created difficulties for the chopper crew as they tried to trim and stabilise the craft. Unable to control this movement they began loosing height. The full weight of the car was now transferred onto one of the rear tyres, which completely blew out the sidewall as it bounced back down onto the road. The springs inside the vehicle’s front wheel wells were also damaged from the violent up and down movement as the car bounced along the road.
Sean Knowles slammed on the brakes and the car acted like an anchor as the helicopter dragged the skidding car along the road. The car eventually came to a halt and the Knowles family, except Sean who had blacked out, jumped out of the car and made a run for the bush. The family watched as the helicopter dragged the car, with Sean still in it, sideways off the road. Sean eventually regained consciousness and climbed out of the car. He later described the helicopter as a huge thing with tanks on both sides and making a humming electrical sound.
From the choppers high vantage point the crew must have noticed a truck that was approaching the scene, so they broke off the attack to avoid any more witnesses to their operation. With the helicopter out of sight the family returned to their car and started changing the blown tyre. At this point in time the truck passed them. The chance appearance of the truck gave them the time they needed to change the tyre, restart the car, turn around and start to follow the truck in an easterly direction.
With the family back in the car and on the road the helicopter returned to continue the attack. The driver swerved all over the road trying to outmanoeuvre the helicopter as it tried to re-attach the electromagnet. It wasn’t until the Knowles passed a truck that the helicopter broke off the attack. Shortly after the family stopped at the Mundrabilla roadhouse.
At the roadhouse the terrified Knowles began telling their story to the staff and two truck drivers, Graham Henley and John De Jong, who now examined the car. Mr Henley later reported to the press that he noticed four dents on the car roof that looked as if the car had been picked up by a magnet. He also reported that there was soot all over the car and it smelled like a blown fuse. Mr Henley had also observed a very high-powered spotlight in his rear vision mirror following him for five minutes. Both truck drivers returned to the scene where the change of tyre took place and verified the skid marks and evidence from the car, which was dragged sideways off the road.
In the meantime the Knowles’s wanting to leave the area continued their journey to the east just as the sun came up. They were stopped and questioned by the South Australian Police in Ceduna. The investigators confirmed that the family were in a state of great anxiety and visibly shaken by the ordeal. They also confirmed that there were four dents on the corners of the hood and there was a fine black/grey dust covering the inside and outside of the car. Even with the Knowles family’s eyewitness account and the large amount of forensic evidence on the car the police failed to conduct a proper investigation into this incident. They instead made arrangements for the Knowles to proceed to Adelaide for further investigation by UFO Research South Australia. The story was also passed on to the TV Station Channel 7, who tied the family to an exclusive interview for a modest $5,000. From that point on truth and evidence relating to this incident was difficult to obtain and the facts became misrepresented and confused.
THEORIES ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED
There are many theories from Ufologists and the media about what happened to the Knowles family that night. Here are some of them:
• The family were going to be abducted by aliens from outer space who were going to conduct experiments on them.
• They were caught in an electromagnetic storm.
• It was the sun coming up.
• It was a rocket fired from Woomera.
• It was a hoax.
• It was an attempt by the family to defraud the insurance company after they had an accident in their car.
I sometimes wonder how many intelligent life forms live on this planet. This is obviously a case of attempted murder of four people who were all extremely traumatised by this hour-long attack. There was plenty of forensic evidence and witnesses to prove that the family was attacked and a major police investigation should have been triggered to uncover the truth.
Analysis of dust samples collected from the car turned out to be mainly Potassium Chlorate, an explosive compound that is used by terrorists to build improvised explosive devices. A radioactive chemical, Astatine, has also been found. Astatine should only be found in a nuclear facility because it is associated with nuclear fission or depleted Uranium.
The attack on the family happened six days before the Bicentennial of Australia. Dignitaries from all over the world were at the Opera House in Sydney on 26 January 1988 and a million people packed the streets and parks around it. We now know that terrorists who are plotting to harm us would more likely choose a major celebration in an iconic location for maximum impact. Now more than ever this case needs to be investigated at the highest level to uncover the truth.
The last word must surely go to the Knowles family. Mrs Knowles gave an interview to a Western Australian Newspaper in which she stated: “We are all angry. Everybody knows that this happened to us but the people who should be concerned have just ignored it. There has been a cover-up. The government owes us and the public an explanation.”