Falcon Lake Incident
[7][2] Michalak had previously staked a claim in the Falcon Lake area to prospect for precious metals, and left home on a long weekend in May 1967.
[1] He was aware that quartz veins within the Precambrian portions of the Canadian Shield within Whiteshell Provincial Park yielded precious metals such as gold and nickel.
[7] Whilst inspecting a quartz vein embedded within the Canadian Shield strata, Michalak claimed, he was startled by the sounds of a flock of geese who were agitated by an object.
One of the objects landed on a nearby rocky platform, and took on a disk shape, while the other craft flew off after hovering in the air for several minutes.
[10][4] The landed craft also changed in color between grey and red, and resembled "hot stainless steel", with a golden glow emanating around the vehicle.
[1][3] Michalak claimed that he continued to interact with the craft despite the lack of a response and approached it, donning his pair of welding goggles as protection.
[1][2] Michalak says the craft then turned counter-clockwise, revealing a panel with a grid of holes[1] that emitted a blast of heated gas which hit him in the chest, blew him backward, and set fire to his clothing.
[1] According to Michalak, he was disoriented from the event, feeling nauseous, and eventually vomiting, and attempted to return to his motel room at the Falcon Motor Hotel.
[2] Michalak then rested and phoned his wife telling her that an accident had occurred, and that he would return to his home in Winnipeg by means of the Greyhound bus.
[7][1] Upon returning home, Michalak sought medical attention at the Misericordia Health Centre[13][7] for his injuries, and was admitted to the emergency room.
[12] His physical condition following the event was allegedly consistent with radiation poisoning,[9] but tests administered at Pinawa, Manitoba, following the incident came up negative.
[3][15] Michalak allegedly lost 13 pounds (6 kg) following the incident,[2] with his lymphocyte count drastically falling to near lethal levels.
In the film, the protagonist's mother is killed by burns from a UFO at Falcon Lake, mirroring Michalak's claims.
[9] American teams, including the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and the United States Air Force (USAF), as a part of the Condon Committee,[15] joined as well.
These include: RCMP and RCAF reports on the case held within the national archives, the USAF file on the incident, as well as the Mayo Clinic correspondence by physicians attending to Michalak.
[3][26] Skeptics of the Falcon Lake UFO Incident state that Michalak's burns were as a result of an accident stemming from alcohol use, and that his claim was in order to hide their cause.
[3] The pieces of melted radioactive metal were purported by skeptics of the case to have been planted following the incident to solidify the hoax.
[3][26] John B. Alexander writing in the Journal for Scientific Exploration states that some of Michalak's long-lasting effects, including the skin lesions which he claimed to be due to his exposure to the exhaust blast, were as a result of an allergic reaction.
