‘U.F.O. caused by natural phenomena’

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 21

‘U.F.O. caused by natural phenomena’

By

IAN WILLIAMS

NZPA-AAP Adelaide

That strange event on the Nullarbor, now tagged by police as the Mundrabilla Incident, has sparked interest from boffins throughout the nation.

Theories on what caused the Knowles family’s night of terror have begun flying around like, well, UFOs. Explanations included a close encounter with dry lightning or a direct hit from a carbonaceous meteorite. Another theorist has suggested the object might have been nothing more sinister than a distorted view of the rising sun. Faye Knowles and her three sons are adamant the dazzling giant egg-in-an-eggcup-like object which landed on their car on the Eyre Highway was extraterrestrial.

They claim the smell of dead bodies, the coating of ash and dents in the roof of their car all point to something not of this

world. And a research physicist, Glen Moore, of Wollongong University agrees. But instead of a U.F.0., he believes each of the individual phenomena and the sighting of a bright object reported by tuna fishermen in the Great Australian Bight add up to a carbonaceous meteorite.

“I see no difficulty with what they saw, only with the interpretation of what it was,” said Mr Moore.

“There’s the possibility of these people feeling a very considerable shock if the meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere above them.

"I haven’t investigated any meteorite fall yet which didn’t at one stage have the U.F.O. tag placed upon it. “It’s quite possible the meteorite broke up in the atmosphere and material from it fell on the car.” Mr Ivloore said the fall of a carbonaceous meteorite near Murchison in northern Victoria in

1969 bore a remarkable resemblance to the events described by the Knowles family. Several farming properties were showered with black material from the meteorite and people reported a peculiar smell and a shock wave as it entered the atmosphere.

However, Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger, head of meteorology at Adelaide’s Flinders University, thinks a severe electrical storm could also fit the bill. “I’ve some doubts if the whole thing isn’t on the fringe of fairyland,” he said.

“But my best guess is that it’s an atmospheric electrical phenomenon manifested in the form of dry lightning, in other words there was no rain.

“If somebody happens to be in one of these electrical disturbances miles from anywhere, it’s going to be a pretty thrilling if not eerie sensation. “Lightning can be generated in a number of

ways and there are great variety of forms. “It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if the answer to this was some form of lightning.” Allan Brunt, the former head of the South Australian Bureau of Meteorology, has another idea — an extremely distorted view of the rising sun.

He said conditions on the day were perfect for far horizon mirages and what happened after the sighting could probably be explained by panic. Mr Brunt thought it possible Mrs Knowles turned her car over without really knowing what had happened, landing back on the wheels.

“I'll go and jump in the lake if that dust they found on the car turns out to be some sort of extraterrestrial material,” he said.

Mr Brunt will have to wait, howeve.r, because police said it could be at least another week before forensic experts analysed the substance.